Real Madrid had about as disastrous an outing as possible, last weekend, in the first El Clasico of the season. So they’re getting Valencia, who sit dead last in the table, at exactly the right time.
Their arch-rivals, FC Barcelona, absolutely thrashed them, and in doing so sent a very strong message about the La Liga title race.
Real Madrid at Valencia FYIs
Kickoff: Sat. Nov. 2, 8 PM, Mestalla Stadium, Valencia, Spain
Real Madrid Preview Material: Team News Starting XI Prediction
Google Result Probability: Valencia 14% Draw 21% Real Madrid 65%
La Liga Standing, Form: Valencia 20th, 7 pts DLDLD Real Madrid 2nd, 24 pts, WWDWL
All this hype in the summer, about Madrid being this unbeatable super-team during the 2024-25 season has not been realized. And unless you’re a hard core Madrista, you read that line with “you hate to see it” vibes.
So with that in mind, let’s do the lineup prediction.
Real Madrid Starting XI Prediction at Valencia
Andriy Lunin; Lucas Vazquez, Eder Militao, Antonio Rudiger, Ferland Mendy; Federico Valverde, Aurielen Tchouameni, Eduardo Camavinga; Jude Bellingham; Vinicius Jr., Kylian Mbappe
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.