Real Madrid travel to Sheriff Tiraspol’s field on Wednesday (20h00 GMT) in search of a victory that will ensure their pass to the knockout stages of the Champions League, and they do so with a desire for revenge after the defeat suffered in Madrid.
The merengue team leads Group D of the continental tournament with 9 points, two more than Inter Milan, who is second, and three more than their rival on Wednesday, while the Ukrainian Shakhtar Donetsk closes the key with a single point.
The victory would ensure the ticket to the round of 16 for Real Madrid, who would play the group lead against Inter on the last day, provided that the Italian team does not play this Wednesday against Shaktar.
The white team goes to the Sheriff’s field as the favorite after chaining seven official games without losing, six of them victories, but with the bitter memory of the defeat suffered in Madrid against Tiraspol in September.
The Transnistrian team, weighed down by their two defeats against Inter Milan, still have options to be in the round of 16, guaranteeing a difficult match for Carlo Ancelotti’s men.
“We are the ‘Cinderella’, but alive. We are going to leave with the knife between our teeth,” the Peruvian defense of Sheriff Gustavo Dulanto told the newspaper As.
Since that defeat, the dynamics of the merengue team has been rising to become the leader of its domestic championship and arrives in Tiraspol encouraged by the 4-1 defeat of Granada last Saturday in LaLiga.
The partners Benzema and Vinicius
Real Madrid travel to Tiraspol with its main figures, although the Belgian Eden Hazard, recently recovered from gastroenteritis, has been left out of the squad, and neither is the Welshman Gareth Bale, who is recovering from an injury to the soleus of his right leg .
With a game every three days, Ancelotti, who has repeatedly complained about the load of the calendar, changed players in Granada thinking about the game against the Sheriff, in which his veteran stars Casemiro, Kroos should count in the center of the field. and Modric.
“They are still the best media in the world,” Ancelotti said on Saturday after playing in Granada, about the German and the Croat, adding that “they have a quality that is difficult to explain and it surprises what they do.”
Ahead, Benzema will continue to lead the merengue attack, accompanied by the young Brazilian Vinicius, who maintains his rising streak in the merengue team.
The two forwards of the Madrid team top the scorers table of the Spanish championship with ten goals for the French and eight for the Brazilian.
“We are playing a lot more time together. We already know what the other is going to do. Karim is a great player, I love playing with him,” Vinicius told Cadena Ser radio about his association with the French forward.
This good moment of the white attackers will be key again on Wednesday against a Sheriff who will not give up trying to repeat the surprise of September.
Probable teams:
Sheriff: Athanasiadis – Costanza, Arboleda, Dulanto, Cristiano – Addo, Thill – Traore, Kolovos, Bruno – Castañeda. Coach: Yuri Vernydub (UKR)
Real Madrid: Courtois – Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Mendy – Modric, Casemiro, Kroos – Lucas Vázquez, Benzema, Vinicius. Coach: Carlo Ancelotti (ITA)
Referee: Szymon Marciniak (POL)
