Report identifies Real Madrid’s plan to stay in ideal shape ahead of Wembley final

Even during a season when not much was expected from Real Madrid after Karim Benzema’s departure, the Carlo Ancelotti-led team are on their way to a 99-point La Liga season win, and have also reached the final of the UEFA Champions League.

While they have already wrapped up the league season, the UCL final is set to go ahead on 1st June, which is understandably their top priority.

Ancelotti has also been regularly rotating his side since the league win, and has given minutes to Brahim Diaz, Joselu, Arda Guler, Fran Garcia, and even Kepa Arrizabalaga and Thibaut Courtois in goal.

Madrid’s plan for full fitness is right on track ahead of the UCL final, detailed by Mundo Deportivo in a recent report.

Rotations away from home

Carlo Ancelotti’s intention with his team shuffling was to keep the important players in the team as fresh as possible for as long as possible.

As such, he has made a lot of rotations in away games, while using close to his best XI in home games to allow player to stay match-fit and in rhythm.

Against Granada, away from home, for example, Ancelotti used the front-three of Brahim Diaz, Joselu, and Guler, with Luka Modric and Dani Ceballos starting in midfield.

Eder Militao also got some minutes in central defence after only recently returning from injury, and Daniel Carvajal was benched in favour of Lucas Vazquez.

The very next game, against Deportivo Alaves, though, Ancelotti chose his best possible XI, with Jude Bellingham playing behind Rodrygo and Vinicius Jr.

In fact, there were only two major exceptions in this team, with Antonio Rudiger benched, and Aurelien Tchouameni out of the squad with an injury. And the former came on to play the last 20-odd minutes, anyway.

Relaxed training schedule

Apart from this, Ancelotti has also curated a more lenient training schedule for the last two weeks of the season in an attempt to avoid injuries and fatigue.

Madrid will not train again until next Saturday, before taking on Villarreal at the Estadio de la Ceramica on Sunday. And like aforementioned, Ancelotti will look to make a lot of rotations to his team for this away fixture.

The final game of Madrid’s league season is at the Santiago Bernabeu, against Real Betis, which will feature the full first-team before the final in Wembley.