Spanish
Real Madrid hosts Mallorca this Saturday at the Santiago Bernabéu (9:30 PM CEST, -2 GMT) after a start to the league for Xabi Alonso's new project marked by defensive solidity and by a Kylian Mbappé as a troubleshooter, but who hopes to find greater brilliance at home from the rest of his attackers against a rival that last season could not score a point in Madrid due to a goal conceded in the 95th minute.
And the hopes of demonstrating that greater offensive power that Real Madrid is presumed to have depend, to a large extent, on Vinícius Junior. The Brazilian was a substitute last weekend in Oviedo, but in the final half hour on the field he assisted Mbappé and scored his first goal away from home since October.
Too many months of drought away from the Santiago Bernabéu for a player trying to rediscover the level that put him among the best footballers in the world, even approaching a Ballon d'Or that Rodrigo Hernández ended up winning. And Xabi Alonso hasn't hesitated to bench him in his second game of the season. Message received by a footballer who will be a starter again this Saturday.
He will do it alongside Mbappé and with Franco Mastantuono and Brahim Díaz vying for the remaining attacking position, on the right flank. And the Argentinian, after starting from the beginning against Real Oviedo, has more chances.
Behind them, the Tchouaméni-Valverde pairing is fixed and Arda Güler has Xabi's confidence. The starting midfield awaits the recovery of Jude Bellingham, by the end of September or the beginning of October, and that of Eduardo Camavinga, after the international break. For his part, Dani Ceballos, after finally rejecting, with everything agreed, his departure to Olympique de Marseille will be on the bench.
And in defense, Trent aims to regain the starting position held by Carvajal, for the first time since his serious knee injury last season, in Oviedo. On the other side, the left back, Fran García could debut this season and rotate with Álvaro Carreras. In the center of the defense, Huijsen is a sure pick and Militao would return to the starting eleven in place of Rüdiger.
For its part, Mallorca, which has had a poor start to the season after falling in a very convulsive match against Barcelona (0-3) and drawing at the last gasp against Celta de Vigo (1-1).
The Jagoba Arrasate squad faces its first away game with new additions to the squad after the return of Samu Costa from his knee injury, Manu Morlanes and Vedat Muriqi from their respective suspensions, and Jan Virgili, who with one training session with the team will already be in the expedition and could debut in the Madrid stadium.
The coach already hinted in the previous press conference that they will seek to repeat last year's plan, so it is expected that they will start with a five-man defense and Kumbulla will enjoy his first start after his good second half last weekend.
From that match, they will need Leo Román to repeat his performance, where he made up to ten saves and was a key figure for the bermellones to reach the end with chances of scoring.
Something that Mallorca will have to improve considerably to score at the Bernabéu is offensive effectiveness. Vedat Muriqi has not started the season well and they will need his best version along with that of Takuma Asano, who performs well when he has to go out into space, as he will have to do this Saturday.
