Group Stage Fan Preview: Real Madrid

It’s time for Champions League football again! The Champions of the Champions League
are back once again to defend their title, the last time the club has been knocked out was
in 2015 against familiar opponents Juventus. Real Madrid are the clear favorites to win
the title, behind them comes Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG and Manchester City.
Despite a stellar start against Manchester United (2-1) and Barcelona (5-1 agg) in the
UEFA Super Cup and the Spanish Super Cup, Real Madrid are already four points behind
Barcelona in the race to the league title. Los Blancos have had difficulty replacing their
scoring machine Cristiano over his 5 match ban. Benzema and Bale; not good enough to
fill in the shoes and Asensio is still young and inexperienced to be carrying the team’s
attack all alone like Cristiano does. Thankfully Ronaldo’s suspension will not carry over
to the Champions League and he’ll be able to start the campaign along with his
teammates.

With Benzema’s poor form and Morata having a good start in London, fans have already
begun pointing fingers at the squad, claiming it is not as good as last seasons.
Personally, I believe that this younger and fresher squad is better and has more depth
than last season’s squad. Theo Hernandez has come in to replace Coentrao, now
Marcelo will have plenty more rest. Vallejo replaced Pepe who also like Coentrao had
very little to do with Real Madrid’s successful season. Ceballos replaced James; the
latter never fit into Zidane’s 3 man midfield now with Ceballos, Zidane has a proper CM
that could fit into the 3 man midfield. We’ve brought back Marcos Llorente to be a back-
up for Casemiro, something we also didn’t have last season. Furthermore, Isco, Kovacic
and Asensio are in their best form since they’ve joined Real, they’ve become crucial to the side. The only negatives of the last transfer window are: Real Madrid have not
replaced Morata who was very crucial in Real Madrid league win last season and we
replaced Danilo (who was a liability) with an inexperienced Castilla player (who is
showing promise) Hakimi Achraf.

The team is more than good enough to win the Champions League and we are fully
equipped with the right players to carry us to the 13th crown. I predict that we’ll at least
progress to the semi-final of the Champions League.

By: @Kroosology

Photo: Goal.com