Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho will make changes to his starting XI and host a familiar foe, one of his former clubs, in the Champions League on Tuesday night in Inter Milan.
The Italians were the last club Mourinho won the Champions League with in 2010, as an impressive treble convinced Florentino Perez to bring him to the Spanish capital and try and break up FC Barcelona dominance.
Mourinho is charged with completing the same task a decade-and-a-half later, as Madrid have finished the last two seasons trophyless while Barca mopped up five out of the six domestic pieces of silverware on offer.
And while he did it to some extent in 2012 by stopping Pep Guardiola from doing four in a row in La Liga, there were questions about his reign given a lack of glory in the Champions League.
Bringing a 16th big-eared crown to the Bernabeu would forgive whatever the Catalans are doing domestically, and the road to such a possibility begins here in the league phase.
With it, the match also provides the opportunity to get back on track, after Mourinho and Co. suffered a first defeat of the season in the league at Real Betis on Friday night.
Despite that loss, the Portuguese will go with the same defense. That entails Thibaut Courtois being protected by a central pairing of Dean Huijsen and Ibrahima Konate, while Denzel Dumfries and Marc Cucurella are the right and left backs respectively.
There are tweaks in the centre of the park, though, with Eduardo Camavinga losing his place in the starting XI.
He’ll be replaced by Brahim Diaz in a fashion, as Fede Valverde partners Jude Bellingham in a double pivot while the Moroccan international is a CAM in front of the Englishman and Uruguayan.
On the right wing, record €140 million signing Yan Diomande gets the nod over Arda Guler as Vinicius is untouchable on the left.
Up front, it is a number 10 in Kylian Mbappe who has come under scrutiny for comments made in response to questions about his defensive contribution compared to the likes of Ousmane Dembele and Raphinha, as well as his chances of winning the Ballon d’Or.
“I want to win. I could tell you that I want to ‘play well’, but I don’t want to play well like we played against Betis and lose. I want to win.
“Obviously we are in a phase where we play eight games and the objective is to qualify, and I think we’re going to do it. But, I want to approach this match in isolation from this context. I want to approach it as a single match, without thinking that we are going to have seven more games. And I want to win.”
Real Madrid Vs. Inter Milan kicks off at 21.00 local time in Spain.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com
Discover more from NAIRAVOICE.COM.NG
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
