Real Madrid take on AS Roma in the sides’ opening fixture of the 2018-19 UEFA Champions League campaign. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the match…
13 time European champions Real Madrid will turn their attentions to the elite European competition four months after lifting their third Champions League title in a row. One-third of a year hence, very few would have expected to see a Real Madrid side without Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo out to defend their title.
However, that is how things are now and the team has managed well in the absences of two senior figures in the dressing room. The Whites will host Italian giants AS Roma at the Santiago Bernabeu and will be vary of the danger posed by the semi-finalists of last season’s edition, who also managed to shockingly knock Barcelona out of the competition.
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Julen Lopetegui’s selection headache is set to continue in hard circumstances after the Real Madrid boss is set to have a fully fit squad for the European opener for Wednesday. The big debate is only between the sticks, and the safe bet to start is Keylor Navas over Thibaut Courtois.
Similar to their hosts, Roma have not had to deal with major injury problems. Alessandro Florenzi was the only doubt, but returned to action in Roma’s victory against Verona over last weekend. Eusebio di Francesco’s side was weakened following the departures of Alisson Becker and Radja Nainggolan. Yet, new signing Steven N’Zonzi and Swedish stopper Robin Olsen have done well to fill the void.
Both the teams head into this fixture on the back of stalemates in their league fixtures last weekend. While Roma drew 2-2 against Chievo Verona, Real Madrid were held 1-1 by Athletic Bilbao. The Romans are 9th in the Serie A while Real Madrid have been rooted to 2nd in the Spanish top flight since the last two weeks.
The refereeing team for this important fixture will headed by the Dutch elite referee Bjorn Kuipers. The experienced official has a long history with the Champions League and has also refereed the final once during his career which incidentally featured Real Madrid at Lisbon back in 2014.
Wednesday evening’s match will kick-off at UEFA’s newly introduced time slot of 21:00 CET at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium which is expected to be sold out, as it usually is for these big European nights. AS Roma will have to defy a few odds to get all the three points against Madrid, who have lost only twice at home in the last four seasons of Champions League football. On the other hand, the Italians are known to spring surprises, with the victory against Barcelona still etched fresh in the minds of many.