Real Madrid v Legia Warsaw

October 18, 2016 • 19:45 • Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid
Referee: R. Buquet

Latest News from the Treatment Room:

1. Ramos, Modric and Case continued their recoveries, and ongoing injury absentee Fabio Coentrao did individual work out on the pitches at Madrid's Valdebebas base.

2. Morata was at the centre of an injury scare after requiring treatment on an ankle knock during training, but was able to resume the session and is thought to be fine.

3. James has fully recovered and has been named on the 19-man list facing Legia.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers: Keylor Navas, Casilla and Rubén Yáñez.
Defenders: Carvajal, Pepe, Varane, Nacho, Marcelo and Danilo.
Midfielders: Kroos, James, Kovacic, Asensio and Isco.
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale, Lucas Vázquez and Morata.

Note(s) from Z's Pre-game Conference:

1. Isco will start.

Probable Lineup: Navas; Carvajal, Varane, Pepe, Marcelo; Kroos, Kova, Isco; Bale, Ronaldo, Benzema.

Confirmed Lineup: pending official announcement...

Time for the seasonal Ronaldo stat pad in the UCL.

We really need to crush opponents here because it may come down to goal differential with Dortmund in the end...

It's funny how Madrid are more afraid of Legia's fans than their players.

Doc wrote:Time for the seasonal Ronaldo stat pad in the UCL.

I expect 4 or more goals from Ronaldo tbh

I expect nothing and rule out nothing. I have seen enough surprises in my relatively short lifetime to never underestimate any opponent, no matter how much of an underdog they may appear on paper.

Also, this has been Ronaldo's worst season at Real Madrid in terms of deadliness; his lowest-scoring to date. Even with Rafa he scored more.

So yes, he could score a lot tonight, but I'm not going to rule out the possibility that he may very well not score at all.

Yeah it's his worst start... but it's also the first time that Portugal had a long tournament over the summer. Same with all Portugal and France players tbh. They've all started slow. I can't think of one player other than Koscielny that has started well in terms of France NT players. The Portugal players I've seen... namely Ronaldo, Moutinho and Pepe... have all started extremely slow.

My worry is Ronaldo's age and whether he's declining or not... but we won't know that for another month or two. If young players are having a hard time kicking it in gear after the Euro, no reason to hold Ronaldo to a different standard.

Want to see some rotations in this game. Danilo in for Carvajal, Lucas in for someone in the front three. James in for Kroos etc. No need to overplay players when there's no need to

halamadrid2 wrote:Want to see some rotations in this game. Danilo in for Carvajal, Lucas in for someone in the front three. James in for Kroos etc. No need to overplay players when there's no need to

James for Kroos?

What kind of a midfield is that??

That being said, it can happen, seeing that their are more attackers than midfielders in the squad.

Ojito que ya tenemos ONCE DEL REAL MADRID: Keylor; Danilo, Pepe, Varane, Marcelo; James, Kroos, Asensio; Bale, Benzema y Cristiano.

James as the holding mid would have been hilarious... would pay to see that tbh

this isn't the game for unnecessary rotations. we are second in the group, we need to make the second round, and we need maximum points if we are to have home advantage and also avoid some heavyweights who may win their group. that last dortmund game really pissed me off

Didn't mean James to play in Kroos' position just meant Kroos to sit and James to play. Kovacic would've played in that holding role in that case

Anyways rip Kroos he is flanked by two AMs who do minimal defensive work

Nice to see Danilo playing well.

Didn't watch the first half, so I can't really say anything. I'll watch the second half and give my take on it. They better be playing well.

Wait, whaaat? James-Kroos-Asensio with BBC up front? What is this 4-1-5?!

Really a 2.........................1-7. Only Varane and Pepe are defending anything while Kroos is cruising around. Doesn't look awful or great so far. Opponent allows for a lot of liberties.

sportsczy wrote:Nice to see Danilo playing well.

Danilo reminds me of Arbeloa

Slow and always out of position

Cyborg wrote:Danilo reminds me of Arbeloa

Slow and always out of position

Arbeloa was a solid, reliable defender. This guy is a dead body

good game, we attacked en masse, after we knew we could take them. thought the defending wasn't terrible, it was alright albeit some free spaces afforded to wingers here and there. the subs did well getting on the scoresheet (had morata scored that volley it would have been beautiful. good to see he has the confidence to attempt such). whatever happens, kovacic needs to get some run of games, he always looks to make forward passes, which is always welcome

not the best of opponents, but hey 3 points are 3 points, let's hope dortmund loses tomorrow. danilo wasn't bad, he had that moment where he afforded their left winger space to run, but the guy fluffed his cross, a better team would have punished us there. that notwithstanding, i thought he had a solid showing. he puts in effort, as i mentioned during last ucl final...he'll get used to this

marcelo and his attempt at a kung fu trap/pass, lol that saw him lose the ball. he can be solid when he wants to be, but he needs to chill out with the over the top ridiculous moves in our defensive third. as i expected he spent a lot of time on offense today, that's okay considering the guys we were playing against. i hope he'll know when and how to manage his offense & defense in tough situations or against tough opponents

kroos distributed the ball well as usual, i was worried about the formation and having a midfield 3 of him, asensio and james, but warsaw posed little problems for them

arbeloa was only solid his first 2 seasons (fantastic in his first, on offense and defense)....at the time of mou's second season he started doing a bunch of awkward stuff in defense, and afterwards became a calamity

Solid game with very little threat coming our way. Our two CBs dealt with their attackers extremely well mostly by themselves with the fbs being very high up. ZZ should have taken out Kroos, he is playing too much and we can't afford him getting injured right now. I liked the 442 formation we finished the game with. Felt abit sorry for James for being subbed so early seeing as he probably wont get any minutes on Saturday.

Anyways onto Bilbao

titosantill wrote:arbeloa was only solid his first 2 seasons (fantastic in his first, on offense and defense)....at the time of mou's second season he started doing a bunch of awkward stuff in defense, and afterwards became a calamity

His best seasons were 09-10 and 11-12. It was mou's second which he destroyed Ribery home and away in CL

@Tito
Dortmund won today. Leading the group through GD (+7 to our +5).

Um, not sure what to make of this match but 3 points is really all that matters.