The Whites face their first away outing since Zidane’s return and will be looking to keep up their clean sweep of victories under the French coach.
There’s no let-up in this busy week of fixtures for Real Madrid.
After overcoming Huesca at the Bernabéu, tonight sees the Whites contest the second of three encounters in seven days (9:30pm CET) as Zinedine Zidane’s men head to the notoriously tough Mestalla.
This is the team’s first away assignment since the Frenchman returned to the helm and the visitors will be gunning to extend their recent winning run.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Zidane insisted, “We want to finish the season strongly, we’re going to fight to finish as high up as we can”.
After seeing off Celta and Huesca on home soil, the madridistas remain on track in their quest to pick up maximum points from their nine remaining games. As they bid to do so, the Whites’ coach is set to continue to share the minutes out between his squad.
Real Madrid have named a 19-man squad for their trip to Mestalla. Raphaël Varane, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Marco Asensio all return to the fray and join the team’s leading goalscorer, Karim Benzema , who has hit 23 goals this term and is in a rich vein of form on the road, having found the net eight times in his last seven away games.
The opposition
Valencia come into the game in fine fettle. Marcelino’s charges are riding a 16-game unbeaten run and are in the battle to seal a Champions League spot. What’s more, the host have only been beaten once on their own patch this term in the league. In short, this is a tough away test for Real Madrid, who have recorded three wins and a draw in their most recent meetings with Valencia.
