Wednesday’s Champions League match against Napoli will see former Real Madrid forward José Callejón return to the Bernabéu. Talking last week of what he fears about facing the current side, he said: “[Real Madrid] is the best club in the world, you have to look out for practically everything. It’s a challenge for everyone. But until Saturday we can’t talk about Madrid, the boss gets angry!” In the exclusive interview with AS, he added: “I dreamed of going back [to the Bernabéu]. I did not expect it to be now, in the Last 16, it’s a bit early to play Real Madrid! But the draw is like that sometimes…”.
The two sides have met only once in the Champions League, in 1987 – when it was still called the European Cup. After a first round 2-0, Real Madrid drew the second leg 1-1. Real Madrid are favourites to win on Wednesday, according to Betstars, and are currently unbeaten in 11 consecutive Championship League games.
Napoli started the season well but striker Arkadiusz Milik’s injury hit the team hard for two months. Although, in more recent weeks the team seems to have found its footing again. Here’s our summary of the best players in the team.
10,000 Napoli fans are expected to head to Madrid for the match, despite the fact tehre are just 3,917 allocated Napoli tickets for the Bernabeu. Meanwhile, 40,000 tickets have already sold for the second leg match on 7th March, in Sao Paolo. Zidane has announced he hopes to have Gareth Bale back from an ankle injury by then. Bale underwent surgery after damaging tendons during the team’s Champion’s League victory at Sporting Lisbon. “He has been working well. He is enthusiastic and the only thing left is for him to train with the rest of the team, which is the most important thing,” Zidane told a news conference on Friday.
