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Real Madrid will welcome Girona in the first leg of the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey. This national competition is probably the most realistic chance that Los Blancos will have to win a trophy this season, even if it is not the most important. The men of Solari are already 10 points behind Barcelona in La Liga and are not reliable enough to be considered as candidates to defend their title in the Champions League. The Argentine coach and the rest of the coaching staff must take this competition very seriously.
Girona has been decent this season, but has not won any games since December 5th. Real Madrid should therefore be considered the favorite to win not only this match, but also the draw and qualify comfortably enough for the next round of the competition.
Overall, Solari could probably try to take advantage of this manageable match and perform some rotations. Players like Llorente – who recovered from his injury -, Odriozola, Nacho or Ceballos could get significant minutes, but the most important for Madrid will be to keep the purity, given the importance of the goals to the outside. .
Girona is not particularly brilliant in front of goal but he does a solid job in defense. They will probably sit idly by and wait for some counterattack opportunities to develop or even put coins. Real Madrid have struggled to convert and create opportunities and if they can not score early, Girona will defend with confidence and try to stay very tight for the return leg in Montilivi.
Team Updates
Toni Kroos, Marcos Llorente and Mariano Diaz all finished Wednesday's training session with their teammates, which means they have recovered from their injuries and should be available to play in that match. On the other hand, Gareth Bale, Marco Asensio, Jesus Vallejo and Keylor Navas are still injured and will not be involved.
The projected queues
Real Madrid screened XI: Courtois, Odriozola, Varane, Nacho, Marcelo, Llorente, Modric, Ceballos, Vazquez, Vinicius, Benzema.
XI of Girona: Bono, Albala, Espinosa, Juanpe, Porro, Pons, Garcia, Fernandez, Portu, Garcia, Doumbia.
Quotes from Solari
"They're a solid team, they're fast on the offensive and solid on sets. They are strong in defense but we must concentrate on our own work to be able to repeat what we did well against Seville, or even before against the Celta, Valencia, Plzen or Rome. But we should try to replicate our strong performance against Sevilla. "
HOW TO WATCH, COPA DEL REY STREET
Date: 24/01/2019
Time: 9:30 pm, 3:30 pm EST, 12:30 pm Pacific.
Place: Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain.
TV available: BeIN Sports (USA), TVE 1 (Spain).
Streaming available: BeIN Sports (USA), Fubo.TV (ALL Real Madrid players with a high quality and legal flow, Click here to sign up and get a discount for new members).
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