Toni Kroos is back in contention to feature for Real Madrid
as they visit the Westfalenstadion to take on Borussia Dortmund on
Tuesday.
Champions
League action resumes on Tuesday, with Matchday 2 of the group stage. The
marquee clash of the latest round of fixtures will see Borussia Dortmund host Real Madrid at the Signal Iduna Park on
Tuesday, with Zinedine Zidane greeted with some positive news ahead of the
trip to Germany.
The
Real Madrid boss has welcomed back Toni Kroos into his matchday squad, with the
German midfielder recovering from the rib injury that forced him to miss the
trip to Alaves on the weekend.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Zidane said that Kroos is in
contention to start on Tuesday. “He’s here with us and that means to say that
he’s fine. We know just how important he is to this team. We’ve got our final
session now and we’ll see how he gets on.”
But, Zidane is without four key first-team
players ahead of Tuesday’s game, with Marcelo (leg), Theo Hernandez (dislocated
shoulder), Mateo Kovacic (abductor injury) and Karim Benzema (hamstring) all
sidelined until October at the earliest.
Left-back is a major area of concern due to the absence of Marcelo and Theo,
and Nacho is expected to deputise once again on the left side of defence.
Meanwhile, Gareth Bale and Luka Modric are expected to start after playing no
part on Saturday against Alaves.
Borussia Dortmund manager Peter Bosz, on the
other hand, has an injury riddled roster to deal with ahead of the visit of
Real Madrid. In fact, the hosts could be without as many as seven key
first-team players on Tuesday.
Defence is the worst hit area, with Raphael
Guerreiro, Marcel Schmelzer (both ankle) and Erik Durm (hip) sidelined.
Additionally, Marc Bartra is a doubt despite featuring as a substitute against
Borussia Monchengladbach on the weekend. The Spaniard’s availability is subject
to a late fitness test.
In the absence of Guerreiro and Schmelzer, either
Jeremy Toljan or Dan-Axel Zagadou is expected to deputise as left-back while
Lukasz Piszczek is likely to be the right-back. Up ahead in midfield and
attack, Andre Schurrle (thigh), Sebastian Rode (pelvis) and Marco Reus (knee)
are short-to-long-term absentees.
Bosz, meanwhile, chose to concentrate on the
visitors in his pre-match press conference, claiming Real Madrid will not
be weaker despite some major absentees. He said,” They have a big squad. I
don’t believe Real are weaker at all because of their injured players. But
we’ve got to do it well.”
No comments:
Post a Comment