Barcelona’s victory at Leganes on Saturday means that Real Madrid must respond when they take on Alaves in their latest La Liga fixture on Sunday afternoon. The gap between the two teams has opened up to seven points, and Los Blancos will be keen to cut it back to four at Mendizorroza.
Real Madrid are still reeling from back-to-back defeats against Valencia and Arsenal, so a bounce-back is absolutely needed in Vitoria. And with that in mind, Carlo Ancelotti is not expected to make many changes from the team that started in North London earlier in the week.
As per Marca, the expectation is that there will be only two alterations: Aurelien Tchouameni, who was suspended against Arsenal, is to return in place of Antonio Rudiger, while Lucas Vazquez will play instead of David Alaba – this would see Federico Valverde move into midfield, with Eduardo Camavinga at left-back.
Alaves brilliantly won at Girona last time out, and they will be eyeing another shock on their home turf. But they will be without starting goalkeeper Antonio Sivera who is serving a one-match suspension after accumulating his fifth La Liga yellow card of the season at Montilivi. Jesus Owono will replace him, and further changes are expected to see Nahuel Tenaglia and Carles Alena start in place of Moussa Diarra and Jon Guridi, who will also be serving a suspension.
Real Madrid are not happy with fulfilling this fixture on Sunday, given that Champions League rivals Arsenal were in action on Saturday. But that does not matter much for the match against Alaves itself, which is a must-win for Ancelotti’s side. It remains to be seen whether the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham will step up at the Mendizorroza – but they need to if Los Blancos are to remain in the La Liga title hunt.
