Well time to play the butchering noisy neighbours. We should look to rest the whole team, even Navas won't escape their kung fu tackles. At this point we can't afford injuries to our core players. There is nothing left to play for in the league but pride. Screw that

This should be our line up:

Benzema and Bale as our forward line is the most depressing thing to see.

thank goodness we have a 3 nil away lead before this tie

give vallejo some playing time

According to Marca, Ronaldo will start on Sunday. Big mistake, he doesn't need to play. Let Bale and Benz have a go and rest Ronaldo

It's actually important for fans who live in Spain that Real Madrid finish ahead of Atleti although not win La Liga.

There are a lot of bragging rights, PR, fan v fan, etc considerations.

Besides Ronaldo thrives on playing every game, 90 min.

Looks like they will play Vallejo with Ramos giving Varane a rest and preparing Vallejo to play in CL. This is important not only for team but to Vallejo himself. This is his opportunity to show he deserves to stay (rather than a loan) for next season.

I view that Zidane is playing as strong a lineup as possible while resting some for leg 2 of CL.

If you don't feel this game is significant, you don't understand the dynamics of Spanish futbol. With a win, we will be only 1 point behind Atleti and they no doubt are a much stronger team than the one we met earlier in season. (and in my mine it will be a preview of next summer's supercup!). This game is a big test, which is good for team and us fans as well.

Forget fans in Spain, I wanna not only finish above Atletico but beat them on Sunday. These guys did shit for most of the season in La Liga, they owe us a win on Sunday.

I am going to hold the lot of you accountable if Ronaldo or one of the other starters get injured on Sunday which is inevitable because we're playing a team that prefers to injure our players than take us on. We'll probably have 60%+ of possession even with Castilla

i want us to win, like i want us to win almost every game, but not at the risk of cristiano getting hurt. he doesn't need to play in this, and when did we start caring about being ahead of atleti? if we're not winning the league, which we aren't then to hell with all that, win because we want to stay in a ucl spot, not cos of ending up second. it disgusts me we are this many points behind barcelona. we need a fit cristiano at this stage of the season, we can't pin our hopes on the other 2 guys

My Spanish friends that are Real Madrid fans don't want to give bragging rights to their atleti friends.

I also think that Flo doesn't want Cerezo to have bragging rights either.

It's like OM and Lyon... they're not going to win the title over PSG... but, at least with OM, we feel like it's our duty to beat the shit out of Lyon.  If our manager and players didn't play these games at 100%, there would be a riot lol.  That loss to Lyon a week back was extremely bitter.

Similar with Man U and Man City for example too I'm sure. Spurs v Arsenal, etc.

there's very little to brag about, neither of us is winning the league title. atleti are the ones who should care more about the second place "trophy" than us. don't get me wrong i want us to win obviously, i'm just prioritizing fitness and ucl over some second place contest with atleti

CR never gets injured. He has one knee injury (that cost NT, not Madrid really) in his whole life basically.

I bet he plants himself in or around the box and barely move all game anyhow lol.

Varane is the one I'm worried about along with Carvajal and Modric. Those 3 are injury prone.

Bale hasn't been injured in a while, has he? Some kind of record lol.

Hala and Tito can both go kick rocks with that stance. I want a God damn Derbi win and I'm pretty certain most of the Bernabeu want one as well. Seriously, Zidane and the lads owe us this one big time. Our lousy La Liga campaign, Benzema and his disgusting 5 goals in 20 odd games for a forward, man, the derbi should be fan appreciation day at this point.

Yeah you can add me to the rock-kickers list too because I couldn't care less about whether we win or lose the derby.

We only have one trophy to play for this season. Only one. That should be our priority. It would be a monumental mistake to field our strongest eleven against a thug team with nothing to play for.

You want bragging rights against Atlético? Win your third CL in a row and watch them bow to your greatness.

Besides the season they beat us 4-0 in the league, we knocked them out of CL. They probably avoided going through in CL because they didn't want to face us again That's not to say that the Madrid fans in Madrid want bragging rights over their noisy neighbours. Still an injury to Ronaldo and we are LITERALLY doomed.

We all saw what happened when he was misfiring. The rest of the frontline is shit. Guys like Varane, Carvajal, Marcelo and the midfielder should not be playing against these thugs. With the momentum we are carrying right now we should comfortably beat them with our b team.

If Bale and Benz can't score without Ronaldo then they need to stop sulking when they don't play/get subbed and start looking for another team

My suggestion. Whichever of the two of Bale and Benz and starts AND doesn't score... gets benched the next game. Similar to the Higuain/Benz duo when they both killed it.

Nothing better than the threat of playing time to motivate players to do their jobs.

i want a derby win too, but i don't want us taking unnecessary risks, especially not against freaking atleti, who have the tendency to be brutal...if we were talking el clasico, that's something different, but atleti? they're a good team, but even without cristiano i expect us to be able to get a good result, cristiano not playing shouldn't be an excuse....i don't know too many atleti fans for me to care too much about bragging rights over them. if it was el clasico, yes. but c'mon bragging rights over atleti? we should be able to beat them without cr and hala's last sentence rings very true. what the hell are we paying bale and benzema for

If I was given a choice of a win against Atleti or finishing off the tie with Juve, there is an obvious choice there since we have already lost the league. Personally I don't even see the point in fielding a team for the league unless it is to gain match fitness for CL. Considering how rough Atleti can be, I would rest as many players as possible. I couldn't care less about bragging rights.

Vallejo is hurt again...

he basically spent the season hurt, or injured. it's disappointing because he looks good when he plays but we can't rely on him because he is hardly ever fit.

He will put us in a tough spot next summer.

Keylor; Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Marcelo; Lucas, Kovacic, Kroos, Asensio; Cristiano y Bale.

Mr Nick09 wrote:Vallejo is hurt again...

he basically spent the season hurt, or injured. it's disappointing because he looks good when he plays but we can't rely on him because he is hardly ever fit.

He will put us in a tough spot next summer.

How the hell did he get injured this time? This was his chance! Now we risk Varane who was out half of this week and likely have to play Casemiro against Juve and if god help us, Varane goes now we will have to use some scrub from Castiila!

This is third time this season and when you consider he came back from Germany early last year, it’s 4 times in a single year. It’s another case of Bale or Varane!

I say if he can’t make it for the Juve game, then it’s a definite loan for next season.

Marcelo has been surprisingly good, defensively.

Hit the bar twice, Oblak saving well, Atleti kicking anything including the wind and Ramos actually does not have a yellow. All in all, good half of football for me.

They are such a dirty team fecking hell

We've been denied 2 stonewall penalties, nothing new there then