According to Sports Mole, Four members of Real Madrid’s first team will be absent for the Copa del Rey match against Atletico Madrid on Thursday.
After defeating Barcelona 4-1 in the Spanish Super Cup final, Los Blancos will be coming off seven straight victories across all competitions into their matchup at Wanda Metropolitano in the round of 16.
In order to move on from their fierce rivals in the Copa del Rey, Carlo Ancelotti’s team will now focus on that competition before returning to La Liga this weekend to host Almeria.
Due to their respective long-term ACL injuries, Thibaut Courtois, Eder Militao, and David Alaba are still sidelined for Real Madrid.
Lucas Vazquez is out in the meantime due to a hamstring injury, but Ancelotti hinted at a possible comeback against Almeria when he stated the Spaniard “will be back on Friday” at his press conference.
“The team is fine. Tomorrow is another very complicated game because Atletico are a very tough opponent and we expect an even more complicated game because they are playing at home and they are doing very well there,” the Real Madrid head coach said on Wednesday.
There had been some doubt over Rodrygo‘s involvement in the Madrid derby, as he missed training on Wednesday, but the Brazil international has been passed fit for the match.
“Rodrygo needed one more day of low intensity but he is ready for tomorrow. Rodrygo is back to playing at his best and he’s doing well, I think he’s doing well,” said Ancelotti.
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“The key to our good run is difficult to say because we’ve had a lot of injuries but we’ve held our own. The intensity in training is very good and that allows us to have a very good physical condition.”
Before the game, Ancelotti gave Vinicius Junior a tribute; the Brazilian scored a hat-trick as Barcelona defeated him 4-1 in the Spanish Super Cup final.
“It’s Vinicius at his best again. He’s learning to play more inside now, which makes him more dangerous because it makes him much less predictable. He scored in a different way in the Clasico,” the Italian stated.
He’s gelling with Rodrygo like a pro. His remarks were more appealing to me than the three objectives.
In addition, Ancelotti stated that he would “take into account tiredness” when selecting his starting lineup for Thursday’s game. Toni Kroos and Aurelien Tchouameni might be rested, and Luka Modric and Eduardo Camavinga might be brought into the midfield.
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