On Saturday night, Real Madrid will host Sevilla in the Bernabeu in an effort to win their fourth straight La Liga game and maintain their lead in the standings.
In Spain’s top flight, Carlo Ancelotti’s team now leads second-placed Barcelona by three points, while Sevilla is currently in 12th place with just 10 points from their first 10 games of the year.
Real Madrid defeated Elche 3-0 on Wednesday night to increase their lead over Barcelona. Federico Valverde, Karim Benzema, and Marco Asensio scored for the defending champions. In addition, Ancelotti’s squad defeated Barcelona 3-1 in the El Clasico on Sunday, giving them possession of the first place in the standings.
Real Madrid may not have been in full flight yet, but they once again appear to be the side to beat in Spain’s top division after winning nine and drawing one of their 10 league games to earn 28 points. In the process, they scored 25 goals and gave up eight.
It won’t be stressful for Carlo Ancelotti’s team to travel to Germany to play RB Leipzig next week because they have already secured their place in the Champions League knockout round. However, they have not yet clinched first place in their division because Leipzig is still four points ahead with two games remaining.
Real Madrid has defeated Sevilla in six of their past seven La Liga encounters, including a 2-1 victory at Bernabeu last season, and has not suffered a league loss to Los Nervionenses at Bernabeu since December 2008.
Considering their recent success, Sevilla’s troubles against Real Madrid on the road are rather surprising, although they did manage to draw at Bernabeu in May 2021 and would likely take that result here.
There is no denying that the season has been difficult for Rojiblancos, who fired Julen Lopetegui as manager earlier this month due to a string of disappointing results. On October 6, Jorge Sampaoli was officially named the team’s new manager, returning to Estadio Ramon for a second stint at the helm.
WHERE AND WHEN?
Venue: Santiago Bernabeu.
Date: Saturday, October 22.
Time: 19:00 GMT.
TEAM NEWS
Thibaut Courtois, a Belgian international, will be starting for Real Madrid this weekend after recovering from a back injury. With the injury, the 30-year-old has missed his team’s last six games across all competitions, although Ancelotti promised before the Elche encounter that the goalkeeper will return against Sevilla.
Dani Ceballos is still sidelined with a hamstring problem, and Mariano Diaz is once more absent due to the injury that kept him from playing against Elche.
Due to the muscular injury he sustained against Valencia on Tuesday night, Tanguy Nianzou has been ruled out for Sevilla, which means Marcao could move into defence.
Karim Rekik, Fernando, and Jesus Manuel Corona are still out injured, and Jose Angel Carmona is questionable because of the problem that kept him from playing against Los Che.
Possible Starting XIs
Real Madrid predicted lineup vs Sevilla: Courtois; Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Mendy; Modric, Tchouameni, Kroos; Valverde, Benzema, Vinicius.
Sevilla predicted lineup vs Real Madrid: Bono; Navas, Montiel, Marcao, Telles; Gomez, Gudelj, Isco, Delaney, O Torres; Lamela.
