Real Madrid seeks to deal a strong blow to the League, as Carlo Ancelotti said yesterday, with a victory today against Rayo Vallecano that would allow it to return to the lead, tied on points with Girona. It will be the first of the three games that the whites have at the Bernabéu after three away from home. On Wednesday they can seal their qualification for the round of 16 of the Champions League against Braga and on Saturday the 11th they will host Valencia in a clash that is expected to be very rough and which will be the first after the one at Mestalla last season and the subsequent scuffle with Vinícius.
For Madrid, the news today will be to see how Ancelotti manages to replace Tchouaméni, who will be absent for six to eight weeks and was one of the undisputed until now for the Italian. The French midfielder suffered a broken toe during the classic. The Italian coach has not given many clues but he did point out that the player in the squad who most resembles him is another Frenchman, Camavinga. Toni Kroos also has options, who prefers to play further forward but who has already worked as a means of containment in important games. Ancelotti included a youth midfielder in the squad, the Argentine Nico Paz, who was already on the preseason tour of the United States and is possibly Castilla's best player.
The other news is the finally entering the list of the 18-year-old Turkish Arda Güler, signed this summer to Fenerbahçe and about whom great things are said. Güler is primarily a playmaker but can play on the entire front of the attack. He remains unreleased because he was injured in the United States and only since this week has he been training with his teammates. Ancelotti is not one of those who likes to take risks and goes little by little with the injured. Surely Güler does not start today but depending on how the game goes he could have his first minutes in white.
Rayo goes to the Bernabéu in a very comfortable position after having made a more than correct transition on the benches, going from Andoni Iraola to Francisco. In Vallecas there was discouragement at the beginning of the season, but the bad omens have not come true at all.
Although Rayo beat Madrid in Vallecas last season, the Bernabéu usually makes the team from the fringe indigestible. The last two seasons they lost by a short 2-1 and Madrid ended up locked in and defending the result but in their twenty visits Rayo has only won once at the white coliseum. Of course, it was sounded. On January 21, 1996, they won 1-2 and that victory cost the then whites coach, Jorge Valdano, his job.
Since then, Rayo has only managed two draws and there are victories against them, such as a 10-2 that Paco Jémez's team conceded on December 20, 2015. It was one of the few joys that Rafa Benítez brought to Real Madrid fans.
