The year 2020 has been an unpredictable one and the introduction to this season’s La Liga domestic competition has joined the strange. After four matchdays Madrid is sat in fourth place and are seeking a turnaround in form. Their Champions League efforts have also been mixed, but a 3-2 aggregate score over Inter Milan could give them the edge they need. 

The First Encounter  

Luckily for Real Madrid, their misfortune during the new season has been matched by Inter Milan’s UCL performances. Matchday 3 saw the Italian outfit travel to Madrid for the 1st leg of their Group B encounter as they suffered a 3-2 defeat and are now in severe danger of exiting the tournament. 

Real Madrid was successful on the night but not without drama, a late 80th-minute goal from Rodrygo put the Spanish side in front.

This 3rd and final fixture took Madrid to four points, one point behind the group leaders Borussia Monchengladbach and level on points with Shakhtar Donetsk. While Inter Milan remain winless and are still hunting for their first three points sat in the last position. 

The History 

Matchday 3 between Real Madrid and Inter Milan was the two teams first encounter since 1998 and their sixteenth meeting in football history.  Four of their historic matches came in the semi-finals, winning claiming all four on aggregate. Madrid has also claimed European Champions Club Cup semi-final wins on two occasions versus Inter and have won five of their previous two-leg ties against the Italian giants. 

With that said, Inter Milan has never been defeated on home soil versus Real Madrid.

Form, mentality, Real Madrid & Inter Milan trends

• This will be Inter Milan’s fourteenth visit to the UCL group stages, they have failed to qualify for six consecutive years between 2011 and 2018.

• Milan has only won two of their previous thirteen UEFA Champions League matches. 

• The first-round loss in Madrid for Inter made it twenty defeats in Inter’s forty-five meetings between Spanish clubs and seven from their previous nine.

• This will be Madrid’s twenty-fifth UCL appearance, a joint-record alongside rivals Barcelona. They have also qualified in all 25 seasons and remain a competition best. 

• Madrid has placed in 2nd position in their group stage for the past two years consecutively. 

• This will be the 13-time champions 51st European Cup appearance, more than any club in history. 

• Madrid has lost six of their previous 14 UCL fixtures. 

• The Spanish giants have won 16 from their last 27 European away fixtures. 

• Madrid has won 9 of their previous ten fixtures versus Italian clubs, and have succeeded in their last four visits to Italy. 

Final thoughts| Champions League Outcome Preview

Madrid’s domestic failures could put their confidence in jeopardy for their return to UEFA Champions League action once the International break has ended. A 4-1 defeat to Valencia before the break saw a Madrid defence fall apart. 

The Madrid defence was an embarrassment as Valencia tore them apart. But the more significant problems lay in their Champions League qualifying opportunity, a loss to Inter Milan could potentially see Real Madrid fail for qualification for the first time in their club’s history. 

The current problems at Madrid are undeniable, but I doubt we’ll see the starting twelve that fielded versus Valencia again. And Zidane is no stranger to a comeback, guiding Madrid to three of their thirteen Champions League titles. 

The available odds between them are quite close, and with the current shaky form of each club, it’s no surprise. Inter Milan will lose Aleksandar Kolarov and Marcelo Brozovic due to positive coronavirus tests which is a considerable blow to Antonio Conte’s squad, but ideal for Madrid on their travels. 

I expect Zidane to sit back and relax in this one; an open style of play will be avoided as Madrid score differentials could be the tiebreaker during the final matchday. Fewer goals and more worry should be on the cards, and a drawn fixture would make sense.  

Real Madrid vs. Inter Milan Score prediction: Inter 1 – Madrid 1 

The 2020/21 Champions League gets underway later this month with the group stage draw having taken place on Thursday last week and clubs knowing who they will face in the opening stages of the competition.

Three-time winners Real Madrid were beaten in both legs of round 16 of the tournament last year by Premier League side Manchester City and will be hoping to improve on that this time around. However, first they must progress past the group stages where Zidane’s side have been drawn against Inter Milan, Shakhtar Donetsk and Borussia Monchengladbach in Group B.

All the groups for the 2020/21 Champions League Group Stage can be found below.

2020/21 Champions League Groups

Group A: Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Red Bull Salzberg, Lokomotiv Moscow

Group B: Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Borussia Monchengladbach

Group C: FC Porto, Manchester City, Olympiakos, Marseille

Group D: Liverpool, Ajax, Atalanta, Midtjylland

Group E: Sevilla, Chelsea, Krasnodar, Rennes

Group F: Zenit St Petersburg, Borussia Dortmund, Lazio, Club Brugge

Group G: Juventus, Barcelona, Dynamo Kyiv, Ferencvaros

Group H: Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United,  RB Leipzig, Istanbul Basaksehir

What Are Real Madrid’s Chances?

Bookies have Los Blancos as fifth favourites to win the 2020/21 Champions League behind last years winners Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Liverpool and PSG. Most bookmakers are offering odds of around 12/1 for Madrid to claim their fourth trophy and we’re expecting several betting offers available in the run-up to the tournament later this month. Many of the bookmakers which take bets on the Champions League also have online casinos such as the ones found on onlinecasinosnoop.com from which there are further bonuses to be claimed.

There are some concerns that preparation hasn’t been made for the upcoming tournament as transfer deadline day has now past and for the first time in 40 years, Real Madrid have not signed a single player.

Zidane has also seen a number of players leave the club, either on loan or on a permanent basis, some of which include Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez, Sergio Reguilon, Reinier Jesus, Achraf Hakimi, Takefusa Kubo, Brahim Diaz, Dani Ceballos and Borja Mayoral.

Shortly after Real Madrid were confirmed champions of La Liga in July, president Florentino Perez announced that due to the financial impact of the current worldwide pandemic, no big-money transfers would be made in the summer.

Manchester United’s Donny van de Beek was due to join the club from Dutch club Ajax but that deal was cancelled by Madrid following Luka Modric’s decision to remain at the club.

The group stages of the 2020/21 Champions League are set to kick-off on Tuesday 20th October and will be concluded on Wednesday 9th December after which the knock-out stages will begin. The Champions League Final is scheduled for Saturday 29th May 2021 at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.

Real Madrid take a trip to the Etihad Stadium on Friday evening to face Premier League side Manchester City in their 2nd round tie of round 16 of the Champions League.

Zidane’s side go into this match playing catchup after suffering a 2-1 defeat at the Bernabéu in the first leg back in February. Following a goalless first half, Madrid’s Isco gave the home side the lead inside the 60th minute which was then matched 18 minutes later by a goal from City’s Gabriel Jesus. City inflicted more misery on Madrid after Daniel Carvajal brought down Daniele Orsato in the box and De Bruyne converted from the spot to make it 2-1.

13-time champions Real Madrid will be looking to build on the success of this season by progressing to the quarter-finals of the tournament but they’re up against a City side who have won 7 consecutive games on home turf and have managed to find the net an impressive 26 times in those games and conceded just one. However, after securing the La Liga title this season, Zidane will have his mind set on achieving another honour with the Champions League. It’s likely that we’ll see a very different side to the one which lost 2-1 back in February with Madrid winning 10 of their final 11 matches in La Liga.

Real Madrid will be without Sergio Ramos after the defender was shown a red card in the 86th minute of the first leg after a poor challenge on Daniele Orsato. Mariano Díaz will also miss the game and Marcelo is looking unlikely to make an appearance.

Gareth Bale would have been looking forward to a return to England on Friday but the Welsh international has been left out of the squad after featuring just twice in Real Madrid’s 11 matches since Spanish football resumed in June.

Manchester City will be without Sergio Agüero due to a knee injury and Benjamin Mendy due to suspension.

The bookies have City as favourites for this match. Not surprisingly based on their home form throughout the season. Manchester City can be back at odds of around 3/4 whereas Real Madrid are outsiders at 18/5.

A draw looks good value at 7/2 as it is all City need to progress but Pep Guardiola’s side have only drawn 3 matches in all competitions since August 2019.

Whichever of the two teams progresses through to the next round will face either Lyon or Juventus in the quarter-finals which is scheduled for Saturday 15th August at the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon, Portugal.

For viewers in the UK, Friday’s match will be televised live on BT Sport 1 with kick-off at 8pm and coverage from 7pm (GMT).

Real Madrid might be on the verge of a La Liga title but are referees really in favour of Los Blancos? According to Barcelona President Josep Maria Bertomeu, they are.

“The VAR is not the same for everyone. This is the best league in the world, but the VAR does not do it justice. The same team is always preferred.” These words come from the Barca President Josep Maria Bertomeu. In his statement, he accuses arch-rivals Real Madrid of being favoured by the referees in the league.

Since the La Liga restart, Real Madrid have leapfrogged Barcelona into a four-point lead with just two games to go.

However, there were some so-called “50:50 situations”, which from the other clubs and Bertomeu’s point of view, were always decided in favour of Real.

Real’s captain Sergio Ramos said: “We won’t win this league because of the referees.” However, elsewhere there are different opinions.

For example, on the 29th matchday, the video evidence caused FC Valencia to be denied at 0-0 against Real because a teammate of the goalscorer was offside. In the end, the Zidane’s men won 3-0.

Or in a match against Real Sociedad at the Anoeta, there were three discussable referee decisions. The minimal contact on Vinicius Jr, which both the referee and the VAR confirm, allows Sergio Ramos to step up and score a penalty. A supposed equalisation of Sociedad is cancelled due to offside and Benzema’s 2-1 winning goal holds, although the Frenchman had previously accepted the ball in the border area between arm and shoulder.

A few other events led Spain’s league chief Javier Tebas to admit that the VAR had “deteriorated”. The introduction of the video technology was welcomed euphorically in Spain, but since the restart of the league, criticism of the VAR has been growing on a daily basis.

After El Clasico in December, club director Emilio Butrageno complained that the referees had missed two “crystal-clear” penalties.

And League President, Tebas, likes to talk about Florentino Perez’s thoughts on the technology last season. The Real President made these comments to Spain’s association boss, Luis Rubiales, in the previous season. 

Perez complained about the lack of intervention by the video referee. Tebas criticised saying that mass intervention was “not conducive to refereeing”.

Since football returned to the Iberian Peninsula, Spanish refereeing has been in the public eye more often than not.

A former Spanish referee had said that “90 percent of the referees” were Real Madrid fans and only 10 percent of FC Barcelona. In an area where neutrality is required.

The former referee’s testimony is further fueled by a photo of Jesus Gil Manzano, a referee in La Liga, who left the stadium with a Madrid gift bag a few years ago when Real was away from Villareal.

However, there is no clear evidence that Real is really the “referee’s favourite”, as Barca’s President indirectly suggests. Because there are always controversial decisions in football, and the introduction of video evidence has made this clear once again.

If you want to place a bet on upcoming Real Madrid matches you can find plenty of betting welcome offers for La Liga matches here.

The 2019/20 La Liga season is set to resume in the coming weeks as Real Madrid and all other La Liga teams have been informed that they can resume training immediately. The news comes following a meeting that took place on Sunday between the league, Spain’s National Sports Council (CSD) and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

Any return to action, however, will be subject to decisions taken by the Ministry of Health and will be only allowed under strict health protocols.

La Liga has been suspended since March with Real Madrid only two points behind rivals Barcelona with eleven games still to be played.

During the lockdown, many fans have been looking for alternative entertainment pursuits particularly online. Online casino’s such as omiqq.com have benefited from players having more leisure time.

Whilst fans will surely welcome a return to action it is almost certain that the remaining matches in this season’s La Liga will be played behind closed doors with no fans allowed inside the stadium. Because of this, the club has been in discussions with the League about playing their remaining home games at the Estadio De Alfredo Stefano, a venue with a 6000 seat capacity normally used by the Real Madrid B team.

The League have indicated that they would approve of such a move which would allow work to continue on the Bernabeu Stadium during the summer months. With Real also having upcoming Champions League fixtures permission would also need to be sought from UEFA to play any of these fixtures at the largest ground at the club’s training ground facility in Valdebebas.

Whilst action hopefully may resume soon it will certainly not feel anything like normal!