In the early morning of May 14, Beijing time, in the 34th round of the 2022/23 La Liga season, Real Madrid hosted relegation team Getafe. With a trip to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City in midweek, Carlo Ancelotti will rotate six of the main players, including Modric, Benzema and Kroos.
Carlo Ancelotti's mind is not on La Liga
In the first leg of the Champions League semifinals, Real Madrid hosted Manchester City, and in the absence of the outside world, the "Blancoats" once dominated the field and opened the scoring by Vinicius. Although they were eventually equalised by Kevin De Bruyne, the scene and momentum shown by Real Madrid still gave people hope of advancing away from home.
Real Madrid players celebrate goals
With La Liga title defense basically hopeless, Carlo Ancelotti can boldly rotate in the league, so that most of the main players have a chance to recuperate. In this round against Getafe, the boss will have an ironclad schedule for Alaba, Carvajal, Benzema, Modric, Kroos and Rodrigo to rest, and if Ceballos (left thigh muscle overload) recovers satisfactorily, it is possible that even Federico Valverde will not be in the starting line-up.
Modric
Away team Getafe are currently 18th in the table. Due to a poor recent record, the team's president, Ángel Torres (a Real Madrid member), sacked former manager Flores and hired Jose Bordalas to the second palace.
Benzema
Real Madrid clearly have the absolute advantage in terms of historical head-to-head results, but given the team's distraction from the Champions League, there are still certain variables in this game. It should also be pointed out that Bordalas is a very alternative Spanish coach, he advocates the traditional British style of high lifting and fighting, which is easy to form stylistic restraint for Real Madrid, which has insufficient air defense capabilities; Borja Mayoral, who is back at the Bernabeu, is certainly full of motivation.
Real Madrid expected starting line-up (4-3-3)
Goalkeeper: 1 - Courtois
Defenders: 17 Lucas Vazquez, 3 Militão, 22 Rudiger, 6 Nacho
Midfielders: 19 Ceballos (15 Valverde), 18 Chuameni, 12 Camavinga
Forwards: 11 Asensio, 24 Mariano, 20 Vinicius
Real Madrid players
Getafe expected starting line-up (4-4-2)
Goalkeeper: 13 - Soria
Defenders: 21 - Iglesias, 2 - Jene, 23 - Mitrovic, 4 - Gaston
Midfielders: 9 - Porto, 20 - Maksimovic, 5 - Miglia, 11 - Alenia
Forwards: 7-Mata, 19-Mayoral