Real Madrid face Legia Warsaw this Tuesday in the third week of the Champions League group stage. However, the club is more worried for the things that can happen outside the stadium rather than for the issues inside the pitch. Spanish police and Real Madrid are very concerned about the security problems that the Legia supporters might cause in the Spanish capital.
Los Blancos gave 4.000 tickets to Legia Warsaw -they are constricted by UEFA to give some percentage of the tickets to the away team-. Los Blancos don’t understand why the Polish club gave 1.000 tickets to the hooligans, who will arrive to Spain to cause trouble. Spanish Polish think that only 3.000 tickets were given to ‘normal’ supporters. “This is more than high risk. We can say this is maximum risk”, Police said about the match.
Legia Warsaw-Real Madrid will be played without public because the Polish club was suspended by UEFA after the incidents in the first game against Borussia Dortmund. The radical supporters cannot come into their stadium but they are allowed to travel to Madrid to watch the Champions League game.
At least 2.000 police agents will be monitoring closely the Polish supporters. The Teddy Boys 95 -this is how the Legia hoolligans are named- have already tried to meet with Ultra Sur -Real Madrid radical supporters- to organize a fight without success. They are experts in introducing flares in the stadium in the sandwiches, in their underwear and even inside the anus. They will have to pass three controls before entering Santiago Bernabéu stadium.
Some of the supporters have already caused some troubles. Three of them were arrested on Monday evening after trying to steal the cash and a mobile phone in a bar, far away from Santiago Bernabéu stadium. Three Polish males were arrested also for insulting the waitresses.
Vincent Thill, currently playing for the Ligue One club Metz, is the new young talent in the French League. Manchester City and Real Madrid have spotted his skills and both are already fighting to get him on board their projects.
Thill is only 16 years old but he has already made his debut in the Ligue One with Metz in the home defeat (0-3) against Girondins Bordeaux. The striker played 8 minutes in his first appearance in a top flight game. He is used to play with the second team in the CFA2 category, although sometimes he is called to play with the first team, even staying on the bench.
Despite his young age, Thill is playing with his national team, Luxembourg. He has played in the starting eleven the three qualifying games for the World Cup in Russia against Belarus, Sweden and Bulgaria, failing to score a goal. His team got only one point with Belarus, although almost get points in the other two games. There were some scouters in the game against Sweden.
According to the Luxemourguese newspaper ‘Le Quotidien’, Manchester City and Real Madrid are interested in the player and have asked about his situation. Zinedine Zidane has already contacted the player and Pep Guardiola, as a Bayern Múnich coach, already asked about the player but he decided to stay one year more in the French League.
“He has the potential to play in any of the five top teams in Europe”, said Denis Schaeffer, his agent when he was asked about Vincent Thill. Real Madrid signed Odegaard two years ago in a similar situation. The winger was only 16 but a lot of European teams were chasing him. However, Los Blancos have now the problem of the FIFA ban. Will Real Madrid repeat the deal with Vincent Thill?
Real Madrid face Legia Warsaw in the third week of the Champions League group stage. Los Blancos need a victory to continue at the top of the group F, along with Borussia Dortmund, who will meet Sporting Portugal in the other match of the group.
Real Madrid v Legia Warsaw Preview
Los Blancos bounced back in La Liga after thrashing Real Betis (1-6) on Saturday at Benito Villamarín. Real Madrid failed to win the last four games, including the last fixture in Champions League, but they played the best game of the season so far in Seville. Isco, who as again in the starting line up, played a great game and lead the team with two goals.
Isco might repeat in the midfield although James Rodríguez is fully recovered from his injury. However, the Colombian only trained once this week and he’s not expected to start. Toni Kroos, the only fixed midfielder available might have some rest thinking in the next games in La Liga. Casemiro, Luka Modric and Coentrao are still out of the team.
Legia Warsaw arrived to Bernabéu as the weakest team of the group. The Polish team was thrashed by Borussia Dortmund and Sporting Portugal and has no points yet in his Champions League debut. Real Madrid are more afraid of the Polish supporters than by the team, currently in the 12th position in the home league.
Real Madrid (4-3-3): Navas; Carvajal, Pepe, Varane, Marcelo; Asensio, Kovacic, Isco; Cristiano, Bale and Benzema
Legia Warsaw (4-2-3-1): Malarz; Rzeźniczak, Hloušek, Bereszyński, Czerwiński, Jodłowiec, Radović, Guilherme, Moulin, Langil and Nikolics.
Real Madrid vs Legia Warsaw Betting Tips
Real Betis have won 6, drawn 4 and lost 0 games out of the last 10.
Legia Warsaw have won 2, drawn 2 and lost 6 of the last 10 games.
In the last 10 games, Real Madrid have scored an average of 2,6 goals and have received and average of 1,1 goals.
In the last 10 games, Legia Warsaw have scored an average of 1,2 goals per game and have conceded 2,0 goals per game.
There have been over 2,5 goals in 7 of the last 10 Real Madrid games.
There have been 2,5 goals in 6 of the last 10 Legia Warsaw games.
Real Madrid vs Legia Warsaw Prediction
Real Madrid should expect an easy game against Legia Warsaw. Zidane said in press conference that there is no gap between both teams because they are all playing the Champions League, so they need to have some quality to be here. However, Legia haven’t shown any quality yet, failing to score a goal and conceding 9 in just two games.
Los Blancos showed great quality against Betis and they need back-to-back victories, so they keep a positive tendency. Real Madrid are used to thrash weak teams in the Champions League and last year they beat 8-0 Malmo. We might expect a similar game, although Zidane doesn’t have many important players available for the game.
Both teams haven’t met recently. Legia Warsaw had to go through in two preview games in the Champions League against the Slovenian side Trencin and the Irish team Dundalk. The Polish team is one of the worst teams in the competition.
After thrashing Real Betis away in the last La Liga game, Real Madrid go back to the Champions League, where they face Legia Warsaw in the third game of the group stage. Theoretically, this is the easiest game in the competition, against the Polish champions. However, Zidane doesn’t want his players to relax and don’t want any surprise.
Legia Warsaw lost 0-6 against Dortmund and 3-0 with Sporting Portugal, so they are one of the worst teams in the Champions League. Besides, in the Polish League they are in the 12th position with only 13 points in 12 games: “If they are playing the Champions League, they are at the same level, depend on us to put difficulties to the rival. For me these ir no gap because it’s the same competitions. We have to show the difference on the pitch. We have to think on adding, give everything, so there are no surprises”, Zidane said.
Zidane expressed his opinion about Françoise Hollande’s words, who said that “Benzema is not a moral example”. The coach is quite angry about this: “It’s normal that the player is bothered. It does bother me, but we have to know what he said exactly. I don’t have an explanation, everyone can have his opinion, and even more a politician. When they took the decision that Benzema can play again for his national team, it’s a problem to hear that. I don’t agree with some people words”.
Speaking about Benzema, the French scored one goal against Betis and he’s improving: “He need continuity and the most important thing is that he didn’t feel pain after the game. It’s very important to know that all can play, but with games every three days we have to be careful”, Zidane explained.
With Benzema in the starting eleven, Morata is not enjoying a lot of minutes: “He is well, he is working and he will have minutes. He knows where he is, he knows he’s going to have games, and the most important thing is that he plays well when he has the chance. We have Asensio, Lucas… We’re here for the same goal, we are going to achieve it all together and there will be some players with less minutes”.
After this little crisis with four draws in a row, Zidane is quite happy with the game against Betis: “I’m satisfied with the job because we can achieve things. After the game I can only be happy. Now we have another game and another rival. We can’t keep thinking in the 1-6”.
Finally, Zidane spoke about James Rodríguez, who can be back to the team against Legia: “He’s fine, it’s the first training with the team, he doesn’t feel pain and he’s physically recover. Besides, he has spent some time kicking free kicks”, Zidane finished.
Real Madrid played yesterday their best game in all the season thrashing Betis in maybe the most complete match of Los Blancos in all the season so far. After the four consecutive draws, Los Blancos had to rely on making a good match against a very difficult opponent in a tough stadium as Benito Villamarín. Los Blancos played with a lot of intensity and that is reflected in the kilometers they ran yesterday.
The player who ran more kilometers was Isco, surprisingly. Zinedine Zidane gave him another chance including the Spaniard play maker in the starting 11. With the injuries of Modric and Casemiro it was a mystery the result of how Real Madrid would play because both are key players of the squad. Zidane decided that the midfield in Benito Villamarín should be formed by Kroos, Kovacic and Isco. The three players named were the masters of the midfield giving the necessary balance when you play away.
Isco was maybe the best player in the match scoring two goals, giving 52 passes, and was also the player with more steals, eight. The most important thing is that Isco is committed with the team because he was the player that ran the most yesterday with 11.57 km.
Zidane trusted him and he always said it. After a difficult summer, where Isco was in the market, the Marseille coach talked with him and he warned him that it was going to be difficult to find a place for him in the starting 11 but if he worked hard he could have the chance to play in Real Madrid. The objective of the French manager is to have all the players at the highest level and after several conversations with the Spaniard play maker, it seems that Zidane recovered him physical and mentally. Zidane spoke about Isco in the press conference saying: ”Isco is part of the squad, he played a great match and I’m very happy with his goals but especially I appreciate the hard work he has done today”, Zidane explained.
Real Madrid sold this summer a youngster to PSG and he is not having minutes with his new team. This player is the young Spaniard forward Jesé Rodríguez. Jesé was a rising star of Real Madrid but with his knee injury his projection has stalled, so Florentino Pérez decided that Jesé should leave Real Madrid and find new experiences in another club for an amount of €25M.
The youngster from Real Madrid is living a horrible adventure in Paris because he is not having the minutes he desired and that was his only objective when he left Madrid. Jesé entered in the last list of Unai Emery for the game against Nancy but he didn’t play any minute in that match. The Basque manager decided that an unknown youngster of PSG should play instead of Jesé.
The starting lineup of Emery left no one indifferent. Despite they played against the last team of the Ligue 1, PSG coach lined a very young player named Nanitomo Ikone being the reference in the attacking line. However, the message to the Real Madrid former player was not the line up of Nanitomo, in the minute 62, Emery decided to replace the young attacker and everybody thought that it was going to be the chance for Jesé, but finally the Basque coach decided that Jean Kevin Augustin (another youngster) should entered the pitch instead of the Spaniard striker.
Jesé Rodríguez is not passing through a good moment and his adventure in Paris is being a failure. We all know the quality Jesé has and the great player he could be, but he needs to work harder to gain the confidence of Emery. In fact, so far this season, the youngster of Real Madrid only had 127 minutes spread on three regular season games. If we consider that PSG team had played 1080 minutes, it’s obvious that Jesé has a serious problem in Paris.
After yesterdays game in Benito Villamarín against Betis, Zinedine Zidane spoke in press conference and he was very proud of the match his team performed in the eighth game of the regular season. Los Blancos needed a victory after the four consecutive draws and the team answered thrashing away 1-6 in the best match of Real Madrid in this season. Zidane spoke about the intensity of his team, the balance of the match and the fourth goal.
Zidane started the press conference analyzing the match against Betis: “We played a good game since the beginning and the first half was spectacular with a lot of intensity. If you play with this intensity is more difficult for your opponent. We really need to play like today. Betis is a good team but we started very concentrated and it’s difficult for any opponent if we play like this”.
The French manager also talked about the intensity of his players in the game against Betis: “My players are very good and very smart. They knew they had to play the way they did it today. With that intensity from the beginning it’s very difficult for the opponent. Now we have to be satisfied and we should have this match as a reference of how we need to play. Every match away is not easy, and we should play like this if we want to have these results”, Zidane explained about the intensity of the players.
The journalists highlighted the match of Isco, Kroos and Marcelo and Zidane said: “You only highlighted three or four players but I must say that all the team played a great game tonight. The first half was incredible. I can’t say any particular game even the players that entered to the pitch from the bench performed a great match”, Zidane affirmed that all the team performed a great game.
Los Blancos scored a brilliant goal with and incredible counterattack finished by Isco and the journalist didn’t doubt in comment the French manager what he thought of this goal: “I do not know if we will repeat a goal as the fourth one. This is the typical goal that the supporters like because the team scored it only with a few passes and very fast. We must play fast in transition because we know we have quality to do it. I will enjoy watching the fourth goal in the TV”, Zidane explained.
Real Madrid played their eighth match in the regular season against Betis in Benito Villamarín with several news in the starting 11 due to the injuries of Modric, Ramos and Casemiro. Los Blancos won after the four consecutive draws against Las Palmas, Villarreal, Dortmund and Eibar. Marcelo returned to the line up after being a few weeks away from the pitch. Zinedine Zidane decided that Isco, Kovacic and Kroos should be the midfielders in the match against Betis.
Real Madrid started the game very good and they scored the first goal in the fifth minute of the match. A great cross from Kroos ended with a header of Varane, who entered in the line up with Pepe in the defense. In the first 20 minutes Los Blancos had many chances to score the second, but the bar and Adan saved Betis. In the minute 30 Benzema scored the second goal for Los Blancos after another pass of Kroos. Real Madrid were playing a great match and we could saw players as Isco, Kovacic and Kroos being the masters of the midfield. 10 minutes later Marcelo scored the third goal after a rejected of Adan. The superiority of Real Madrid was being amazing and just before finished the first half, Los Blancos did a great counter-attack punished by Isco.
In the second half Los Blancos started to pass the ball and they had the control of the match having four goals of difference. Betis scored their first goal in the match and they shorted the gap to three goals, but the difference was very large. Only 8 minutes later Isco scored his second goal in the game from a great shot from outside the box. Zidane started to do substitutions thinking in the match of Champions -Los Blancos will face against Legia next week-. Lucas replaced Kovacic and Morata also entered to give a rest to Benzema. Cristiano also scored his goal in the minute 80 from a great assist of Morata.
We can say that Real Madrid played the best game of all the season being very safe in the defense and very dynamic in the attack. Betis fought until the end but they couldn’t do anything with the quality of the players managed by Zinedine Zidane.
There are four players in Real Madrid that have to renew their contracts this year. These players are Luka Modric, Pepe, Cristiano and Gareth Bale. According to The Times, Gareth Bale want to have the same salary of Cristiano Ronaldo, around €20M nets per year.
Gareth Bale is a very important player for Real Madrid and Real Madrid should negotiate with him to renw his contract. The winger from Wales want to increase his salary and it seem the amount is almost unconscionable. According to The Times, the Welshman does not accept the role of being secondary and he demands to be, with Cristiano Ronaldo, the highest paid player of the team. Real Madrid think that the there is too much difference between the actual salary and the one he demands. If Los Blancos finally accept that conditions, they must pay Gareth bale around
€22M.
Florentino Pérez thinks, Gareth Bale will be the future star of Los Blancos in a few years. Cristiano is 32 years old and he said he is willing to end his career in Real Madrid. When Cristiano decides to leave Real Madrid, the Welshman might be the image of Real Madrid for many years because he is only 27 years old and he has a lot of career ahead.
This is the fourth year of Garth Bale in Madrid and the results are being very positive. Real Madrid signed Gareth Bale for an amount of €100M considering him the future rising star of the world. In his four years in Madrid he has won two Champions League and one Copa del Rey being a key player for Los Blancos. Bale has scored since he signed in Madrid more than 10 goals in La Liga in the four seasons and this year he already scored 3 goals in the 6 games he played in the regular season.
Real Madrid want to sign a midfielder for the next year and there´s a very interesting player who dreams to play for Los Blancos in the future. This player is the Italian midfielder Marco Verratti who has already been linked many years to Real Madrid. According to Sportskeeda, the young midfielder has the intention of playing for Real Madrid someday. The journalists claim that he has been two years negotiating with Los Blancos and that this year could be the last one for Verratti in Paris.
Marco Verratti started his career playing in the Serie B with Pescara where he grew as a professional during three years from 2009 until 2012 and where he played with great players as Insigne and Immobile. PSG focused on him because he was a great playmaker for a footballer of his age. He signed with PSG in 2012 for an amount of €12M and this will be his fourth season playing in Paris.
As we published a few weeks ago, Real Madrid need another defensive midfielder in the squad because Casemiro is the only player in the squad with that skills. With Casemiro’s injury, Los Blancos had drawn four games in a row and that’s not usual. Marco Verratti is a great playmaker and many people compare him with Andrés Iniesta but he can also do different functions. He is a master of the pass but he also gives the stability Casemiro has with his steals.
Verratti could be a great signing for Real Madrid if he finally decides to leave Paris. This season the Italian midfielder has played almost all the games PSG have played until today. Verratti can say that he won 4 times the Ligue 1 (French League) and several National Cups but he doesn’t have any Champions League. The Italian midfielder is only 23 years old and he can aspire to win everything he wants in his career.
