Rodrygo Goes will return to the Real Madrid starting lineup against VfB Stuttgart in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.
Real Madrid will begin the defence of the UEFA Champions League crown when they host VfB Stuttgart at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night. And Carlo Ancelotti has greeted a mixed bag of updates on the team news front ahead of his side’s latest fixture.
Brahim Diaz is the latest absentee after sustaining a hip injury against Real Sociedad this past weekend. The Moroccan international has joined David Alaba, Dani Ceballos, and Eduardo Camavinga on the sidelines. However, the matchday squad has provided some good news.
Jude Bellingham and Aurelien Tchouameni are back with the group and in contention to take on VfB Stuttgart on Tuesday. Meanwhile, during his pre-match press conference, Ancelotti discussed the duo’s potential availability and the injury crisis of his squad.
The Real Madrid manager said, “We’ve been looking for the problem, but it’s not in our hands. The schedule is too demanding. A new competition comes along and you don’t know how it’s going to go. It might be more entertaining than last year, but for the time being we have two more games.”
If the governing bodies and decision-makers don’t think that players get injured because they play too much, we have a problem. I would ask them to think about reducing the number of matches in order to have more attractive competitions.”
On Tchouameni and Bellingham, the Real Madrid boss said, “Bellingham is fine, as are Tchouameni and Militão, who didn’t train today. Militão needed more time to recover and that’s why we thought we’d give him an extra day’s rest. He’ll be 100% available tomorrow. We’ve also been unlucky to lose another important player, but the team is ready and we’ll look to get off to a winning start.”
Ancelotti might ease Bellingham and Tchouameni into the thick of the action. So, Luka Modric and Federico Valverde should pair up in the double pivot, with Arda Guler reprising the no. 10 role. Rodrygo should return to the starting lineup, replacing Diaz. The Brazilian will accompany Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe in the final third.
The backline should not see any changes, with Eder Militao, Antonio Rudiger, Ferland Mendy, and Dani Carvajal taking their spots. Finally, there is no looking past Thibaut Courtois between the sticks.
Predicted Real Madrid XI: Courtois; Carvajal, Militao, Rudiger, Mendy; Valverde, Modric; Rodrygo, Guler, Vinicius; Mbappe
