Real problems for Madrid?
See you Zizou!
The big news surrounding Los Blancos is the return of Carlo Ancelotti, after the departure of Zinedine Zidane after his five-year tenure as manager. Real Madrid will be looking to make a good start to this 2021/22 La Liga season, after just being pipped to the title rivals Atletico Madrid. Alaves, on the other hand, narrowly avoided the drop by just four points, finishing 16th in the league. This is Alaves’ sixth consecutive season in Spain’s topflight, but it won’t be a season without a relegation battle for the hosts. They welcome a Real Madrid side that has the best away record in the league last time out and getting off to a comfortable start should be the absolute priority in Ancelotti’s first comeback game.
Pre-season, anyone?
This matchup makes for more a more intriguing proposition than first meets the eye. Because, while Real Madrid are the obvious favourites, it certainly won’t be plain sailing for Ancelotti’s side. They’ve actually only played two pre-season friendlies, resulting in a loss to Rangers at Ibrox and a draw with AC Milan. Couple this with missing several key players for Saturday night’s game, including Toni Kroos, Dani Carvajal, Ferland Mendy and Karim Benzema, who may be limited to starting from the bench after recovering from COVID. This could leave the door open for the forgotten man in Madrid, Luka Jovic to get a start and try and cement a place in Ancelotti’s plans for this season. As for Alaves, they can make their decent home form from last season a strong point in this campaign with a result against Los Blancos. They scored in their final six home games of the season and, while Madrid’s form was imperious away from home last campaign, this is a very different Real Madrid side. No Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane or Zinedine Zidane means we will have a huge shakeup to this Real Madrid setup.
Ancelotti’s return
Real Madrid will be hoping that Ancelotti’s second spell with the club will be just as successful as his first-time round between 2013 and 2015. He led them to a Copa Del Rey, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, and a Club World Cup, with the La Liga title being the only major trophy to allude him. While they haven’t had much of a pre-season, and that this will be a very different Real Madrid to season’s gone by, they should still have enough to claim all three points against an Alaves side that struggled to avoid the drop lasts season.
Despite Alaves being the heavy underdogs here, I do fancy them to grab a goal against what will be a new-look defence due to recent departures. However, the firepower at Ancelotti’s disposal should see them win this one. That’s why I’m going with Real Madrid and both teams to score with bet365
Post bet chat Archie's Tips:
A 1-3 win for the visitors sees this bet come through