A mouth-watering European classic is on the menu this week as Real Madrid host Bayern Munich to play the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final.
Real Madrid enter this match after going down 2-1 in their previous outing to relegation-threatened Mallorca. Los Blancos never looked settled in the match as goals from Manu Morlanes and Vedat Muriqi drowned any hopes of a potential comeback instilled by Éder Militão’s 88th-minute header. La Liga leaders Barcelona capitalised on this defeat to pick up a victory of their own over Atletico Madrid to go seven points clear at the top.
Despite an inconsistent season, Real Madrid remain in the mix to win the Spanish top flight and the Champions League, but they must undergo the Bayern test in the last eight.
Álvaro Arbeloa will bank on top scorer Kylian Mbappé, who has already netted 13 times in the Champions League. The Frenchman is set to start alongside Vinícius Júnior upfront. Real’s star goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois remains sidelined with an injury, and Andriy Lunin will deputise for him. Ferland Mendy continues his recovery and could feature in the return leg.
As for Bayern, they come into this match on the back of a stellar comeback victory over Freiburg in their last match. The Bavarians looked on course for their second defeat of the season as Julian Schuster’s men had a two-goal cushion until Tom Bischof fired a brace after the 80th-minute. Lennart Karl was on point to slot home the winner in added time to keep the positive momentum ongoing for the European clash.
Vincent Kompany’s men registered a gigantic 10-2 aggregate scoreline against Atalanta over the two legs in the Round of 16. However, a packed Santiago Bernabeu crowd awaits them, and Real Madrid’s woes will matter little in a clash of such grandeur.
Sky Germany reports that Harry Kane has completed the final training session ahead of the fixture and is set to start after missing the Freiburg match. This development will send Nicolas Jackson to the bench. Karl’s winning goal is not expected to be enough for a starting place as the Belgian coach will go with the trio of Luis Díaz, Serge Gnabry and Michael Olise behind Kane.
Predicted line-ups for the Champions League clash between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich
Real Madrid: Lunin – Alexander-Arnold, Rüdiger, Huijsen, Carreras – Fede Valverde, Tchouameni, Pitarch, Arda Güler – Mbappé, Vinicius Júnior.
Bayern Munich: Neuer – Stanišić, Upamecano, Tah, Laimer – Kimmich, Pavlović – Olise, Gnabry, Díaz – Kane.
GGFN | Trambak Bhattacherjee
