Overview
Last weekend, Real Madrid's hopes of winning La Liga suffered a heavy blow when the capital team unexpectedly lost to Mallorca with a score of 1-2. Meanwhile, Barcelona defeated Atletico Madrid in the final minutes, thereby widening the gap to 7 points in the standings.
With the current situation, Real Madrid is almost forced to win all 8 remaining matches if they want to nurture hopes of overcoming Barcelona. Not only that, coach Alvaro Arbeloa's team also has to distract themselves from the Champions League arena, after losing to Bayern Munich 1-2 in the first leg of the quarter-finals.
The Royal team will host Girona before traveling to Germany to play the second leg, and clearly they need a convincing performance to create psychological momentum as well as nurture hopes of going further.
Real Madrid's home form this season is still very impressive, with 13 wins after 15 matches at the Bernabeu. Meanwhile, Girona only won 15 points after 15 away trips.
In terms of head-to-head competition, Real Madrid has an advantage when they have won 8/13 of their most recent encounters with Girona in all competitions. However, in the first leg of this season, the two teams drew 1-1.
In fact, Girona has lost 4 of their last 5 encounters with Real Madrid, including a 0-2 defeat last season. However, the representative of Catalonia once surprised when defeating this opponent 2-1 right at the Bernabeu in 2019.
Girona entered the match with a fairly positive mentality after a 1-0 victory over Villarreal. They have won 6 points in the last 3 matches, including a victory over Athletic Bilbao in mid-March.
Currently, coach Michel's team is ranked 12th, 8 points ahead of the relegation group and about 7 points behind the top 6, so the goal of ending the season in the mid-table area is completely feasible.
In the context that Real Madrid still has to focus on the Champions League, Girona can completely expect to create a surprise in the away match to Bernabeu.
Personnel situation
Real Madrid will not have the services of Rodrygo (knee injury), Thibaut Courtois (brother injury) and Franco Mastantuono (suspension) in this match. However, Ferland Mendy is expected to recover from his hamstring injury in time to return to the squad.
In the context of being forced to win to maintain the hope of competing for the championship, Arbeloa is unlikely to rotate completely before the second leg against Bayern. However, some adjustments can still be made, as Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, Fran Garcia and Eduardo Camavinga are likely to be in the starting lineup.
In the pre-match press conference, Arbeloa also confirmed that Jude Bellingham will start. Besides, Aurelien Tchouameni - who was suspended in the second leg of the Champions League - is almost certain to start from the beginning, while Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe continue to lead the attack.
On the other side of the front line, Girona suffered significant force losses when Portu, Donny van de Beek, Juan Carlos, Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Ricard Artero were all absent due to injury.
In addition, Vladyslav Vanat and Daley Blind also had physical problems after the match against Villarreal, in which Vanat's ability to play is more uncertain. Abel Ruiz may be chosen to replace him in attack.
Meanwhile, Thomas Lemar is likely not to start from the beginning, and Ivan Martin is expected to continue to keep a spot in Girona's starting lineup.
Expected lineup:
Real Madrid: Lunin, Carvajal, Militao, Huijsen, F. Garcia, Valverde, Tchouameni, Camavinga, Bellingham, Vinicius, Mbappe.
Girona: Gazzaniga, Martinez, Reis, Blind, Moreno, Beltran, Witsel, Tsygankov, Martin, Ounahi, Ruiz.
The match between Real Madrid and Girona takes place at 2:00 a.m. on April 11 (Vietnam time).
