Overview
Xabi Alonso, who won the Europa League runner-up position with Bayer Leverkusen in 2024, is determined to conquer UEFA's most prestigious title this season. The ambitious Real Madrid coach has started his journey in the Champions League with 2 consecutive victories.
After a thrilling 2-1 victory over Marseille in September, Los Blancos continued to show their strength when they crushed Kairat Almaty 5-0 in the second match. Kylian Mbappe shined brilliantly with a hat-trick, helping the 15-time European champions get closer to the goal of a ticket to the next round.
Real Madrid have won 12 of their last 13 home matches in the Champions League, only losing to AC Milan 2 years ago. They will return to the Bernabeu to welcome Juventus in the middle of this week.
The Royal team just had a perfect start with a 1-0 victory over Getafe in La Liga, in which Mbappe continued to score the decisive goal. This result helped Real maintain the top spot, 2 points ahead of Barcelona - right before the first El Clasico match of the season.
Before facing their arch-rivals, Los Blancos will reunite with Juventus - the opponent they defeated 4-3 after two matches in the 2018 Champions League quarter-finals.
Since parting ways with Cristiano Ronaldo, Juventus have gradually lost the position of a formidable force - both domestically and in the European arena.
Having failed to make a significant mark in the Champions League in recent years, the "Old Da Nang" only finished 20th in the group stage last season, then were eliminated by PSV Eindhoven in the knockout round.
Their goal this season is to enter the top 8 to directly qualify for the round of 16, but Igor Tudor and his team are under great pressure after 2 dramatic draws. In the first leg, the Bianconeri let Dortmund lead by 2 goals in the final minutes, before rising up to score 2 goals in extra time to keep a point.
In their most recent appearance, they continued to lose the victory when Renato Veiga - a player being loaned by Juventus to Villarreal - scored a late equalizer at El Madrigal.
That result is part of Juventus' run of five consecutive draws - their longest in nearly two decades. More worryingly, the "Old Da Nang" have won just one of their last 11 away games in the Champions League, and have just lost 0-2 to Como in Serie A last weekend, falling to 5th in the table.
Personnel situation
Real Madrid will be missing some key players in the defense in the match against Juventus. Antonio Rudiger, Dani Carvajal and Dean Huijsen are all unable to attend. Meanwhile, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ferland Mendy have returned to training, but Xabi Alonso will likely keep them for the El Clasico match.
In addition, David Alaba also needs to be checked further after leaving the field in the midst of the win over Getafe due to a calf injury. This was the Austrian's first starting match in La Liga this season, but he had to give way to Raul Asencio shortly after the second half started.
On the other side of the front line, Juventus have yet to find a real locomotive in attack. Igor Tudor is expected to arrange Francisco Conceicao and Kenan Yildiz to support the striker as the only striker, while Dusan Vlahovic and Jonathan David compete for the starting position. Notably, David scored against Real when he was playing for Lille last season.
The visitors will continue to be without Gleison Bremer and left-back Juan Cabal, but Fabio Miretti has returned to training, while Edon Zhegrova is fit enough to sit on the bench. The remaining problem for Tudor is whether he will continue to experiment with the 4-defender formation or return to the familiar 3-4-2-1 after the defeat to Como.
Expected lineup:
Real Madrid: Courtois, Valverde, Militao, Asencio, Carreras, Tchouameni, Camavinga, Mastantuono, Guler, Vinicius, Mbappe.
Juventus: Di Gregorio, Gatti, Rugani, Kelly, Kalulu, Locatelli, Thuram, changeaso, Conceicao, Yildiz, David.
The match between Real Madrid and Juventus takes place at 2:00 am on October 23 (Vietnam time).
