Madrid: There is not much at stake for defending champions Real Madrid when they meet Borussia Dortmund in their Champions League group encounter here Wednesday. Real Madrid have already qualified for the knockouts, hence their only motivation for victory would be to finish on top of their pool.
The only advantage finishing on top of the group gives is that the club gets to play the home leg of the game second. Real Madrid have always thrived on home support. Even in the recent past, Real Madrid have taken home advantage to the hilt. Last season, they played Manchester City after drawing the first leg 0-0 and promptly took advantage of it to emerge victorious.
The bad news for Real Madrid, however, is Gareth Bale’s absence from the training session. After a lengthy injury lay-off, Bale came in as substitute during Real’s Copa del Rey game against third-tier side Fuenlabrada and played for 20 minutes. However, after the game he told the management about still feeling discomfiture on his injured leg and since hasn’t been attending training sessions.
“Yes, he is not even on the bench for the game Wednesday,” Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane told reporters here. “He’s still going through rehab.”
Los Blancos have a tough and crucial game against Sevilla, Saturday and Zidane will surely be hoping that Bale is ready enough to at least come off the bench then, given how thin this year’s squad is.
Marco Asensio will be available as he rejoined the squad for training, Monday. The Spanish attacker could get some minutes in order to regain confidence and momentum for the tough matches ahead.
Agencies
