Real Madrid will conclude their pre-season tour to the United States with a friendly against Juventus at the Camping World Stadium, Florida, on Wednesday.
It has been an eventful summer for Carlo Ancelotti’s men in the wake of Karim Benzema’s exit, where the Italian tried a new formation and got positive results against AC Milan and Manchester United.
However, in their last match, they had to taste a defeat at the hands of arch-rivals FC Barcelona. Courtesy of the woodwork, which Madrid hit five times, the Whites could not score even one goal despite being dominant throughout the game of football.
Madrid are set to face Juventus to end their pre-season on a high note before the club finally kicks off their La Liga campaign against Atheltic Bilbao in 10 days.
Madrid will be without Ferland Mendy, Turkish prodigy Arda Guler — who is ruled out for two months with a meniscus injury — and Dani Ceballos.
Even though Ancelotti does not have that many attacking outlets, he has enormous midfield options. Experienced midfield maestros Toni Kroos and Luka Modric are likely to mark their return in the starting XI in place of Jude Bellingham and Eduardo Camavinga.
On the other hand, Juventus are without many of their key players. Adrien Rabiot and Nicolo Fagioli are not with the team.
Predicted lineups:
Real Madrid: Thibaut Courtois; Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, Antonio Rudiger, Fran Garcia; Toni Kroos; Federico Valverde, Luka Modric; Brahim Diaz; Rodrygo, Vinicius Jr.
Juventus: Wojciech Szczesny; Danilo, Gleison Bremer, Federico Gatti; Timothy Weah, Fabio Miretti, Manuel Locatelli, Weston McKennie, Filip Kostic; Moise Kean, Federico Chiesa.
It must be noted that Real Madrid and Juventus faced one another in the 2017 UEFA Champions League (UCL) final, where the former won 4-1 and clinched their twelfth UCL title.
After that, the teams met in the quarter-finals of the UCL 2017-18 season — where Cristiano Ronaldo scored one of the best goals of all time with an overhead kick — which Madrid won as well.