Real Madrid News
Official: Real Madrid squad list to face Barcelona
Real Madrid will be raring to get back to winning ways when they take on bitter rivals Barcelona in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-finals on Thursday.
Having been held to a 1-1 draw by Atletico Madrid in La Liga last time out, Los Blancos will be eager to bounce back strongly against Xavi’s side at the Bernabeu.
And ahead of the match-up, manager Carlo Ancelotti has released the list of Real Madrid players that will be available for selection for the contest against Barcelona.
The big news is that Brazilian forward Rodrygo Goes has recovered from his gluteus muscle issue and is back in the squad for the match, after having missed the derby. The 22-year-old only returned to training earlier today and might not be in line to start, however.
Alvaro Rodriguez, who is the talk of the town after his equalising goal against Atletico Madrid, is also a part of the Real Madrid squad list for the Barça clash.
However, Los Blancos once again remain without first-choice left-back Ferland Mendy, who is still recovering from an injury. Fellow defender David Alaba also misses out after being sidelined with an injury last week.
📋✅ Our squad for #ElClásico!#CopaDelRey pic.twitter.com/RAbcVJqi9w
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) March 1, 2023
In what could be a real deal breaker for Real Madrid ahead of their Copa del Rey semi-final second leg clash against Barcelona, it has been revealed that as many as three Barça will be absent from the game while another key player remains a major doubt.
The list includes the likes of Pedri, Ousmane Dembele and Andreas Christensen. The trio is certain to miss the game through respective injuries while a certain Frenkie de Jong is more or less ruled out, as per Javi Miguel.
It must be remembered that Barcelona are heading into the second leg with a 1-0 advantage. But the absence of the aforementioned players means Madrid can work on exploiting the frailties.
Despite the absence of such big names, Barcelona did pretty well against Elche in their previous outing, coming out 4-0 victorious, with the goals coming from Robert Lewandowski, Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres.
With options lacking in midfield, Xavi decided to use the likes of Sergi Roberto and Eric Garcia along with Gavi in the heart of the lineup. In any way, they do have Sergio Busquets and Franck Kessie as backups if needed.
The defence, on the other hand, was perfectly guarded by Jordi Alba, Marcos Alonso, Ronald Araujo and Jules Kounde.
One can expect Xavi to once again interchange Araujo with Kounde on the right since the Uruguayan has been rather successful in minimizing the threat of Vinicius Jr.
As far as Madrid are concerned, they are sweating over the fitness of three key defenders, namely, Antonio Rudiger, Nacho, and Ferland Mendy. Between these three, the Frenchman is out for about a month while Rudiger and Nacho are expected to be back before the Clasico.
If there are no casualties against Real Valladolid, Madrid will have a perfect midfield and attack, with only Mariano Diaz missing.
