Real Madrid may have picked up three trophies on their pre-season travels but the hard work begins today as the new La Liga campaign gets underway for Los Blancos.
With just one title in the past seven years, Rafa Benitez and his men will be under pressure from day one to make sure they take the trophy back to the Santiago Bernabeu come the middle of May 2016.
Without wanting to belittle today’s opponents, it couldn’t have been more of a dream start for Benitez to take charge of his first competitive game. Sporting Gijon are making their return to the top flight for the first time in four years and shouldn’t prove too tricky a test for the 10-time Champions League winners.
Even Sporting coach Abelardo doesn’t rate his teams’ chances too highly, saying: “Out of 100 matches against Madrid we would win one, hopefully that will be tomorrow.”
In terms of team news, Karim Benzema and Fabio Coentrao sat out training on Friday putting their participation in doubt. The big decision for Benitez will be who starts in goal – Kiko Casilla or Keylor Navas. New boy Mateo Kovacic could may a debut in midfield. Whatever the case, Los Blancos should win this comfortably.
Possible line-ups:
Sporting Gijon: Pichu; L Hernandez, Espinosa, Ramos, Lopez; Alvarez, Cases, Carmona, Halilovic; Guerrero, Castro
Real Madrid: Navas; Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Marcelo; Kovacic, Modric, James; Isco, Bale, Ronaldo
Realmadridnews.com prediction: Sporting Gijon 1-3 Real Madrid
Sporting 0~3 Madrid
Sporting (pen)1- Real madrid 6