Real Madrid will come to this meeting in full combat readiness, as most of the key players did not play for their national teams. Only 3 days after this match, “cream” will play a rematch with Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Spanish Cup. As Real Madrid lose their chances of winning the league, the cup match will be of great importance for them.
In terms of the expected number of goals scored (xg = 2) and conceded (xga = 0.91), the team is ranked 1st and 4th in the league, which is an excellent record.
Valladolid plays open football, and the team’s distinguishing feature is intense pressing (ppda = 11.2 – 5th place). It is extremely rare to implement such a complex game model, as evidenced by the 3rd place from the bottom in terms of expected goal difference (xg Diff = – 19).
The negative dynamics is also reflected in the table. After 26 rounds, the “white-and-purple” are in 16th place, and the loss to the relegation zone in the class is 2 points.
Javier Sanchez, who will be serving his suspension, will be absent from the upcoming match.
In this match, Carlo Ancelotti will let his key players play from the first minutes to get into the rhythm of the game before the cup. I suppose Real Madrid will try to solve all the problems in the first half of the game.