Diego Maradona will be in a special guest at the Bernabeu on Wednesday to see Real Madrid take on his former club Napoli in a last-16 first leg of the Uefa Champions League. Napoli are at this juncture for only the second time in the Champions League era and the clubs will meet for only the second time in a tie which is far more intriguing than a repeat of Arsenal v Bayern Munich or Barcelona against Paris Saint-Germain.
Holders Madrid are unbeaten in 11 home games in the competition since a 2014/15 defeat to Schalke. Napoli have not lost an away game all season in Europe. They are on an 18-game unbeaten run and have been scoring lots of goals. Madrid, however, have scored in each of their last 40 matches.
Cristiano Ronaldo missed training on Monday, but Zinedine Zidane, who is expected to play a 4-3-3 with full-backs Dani Carvajal and Marcelo reunited after months interrupted by injury, enjoys the luxury of naming his strongest team with the exception of the injured Gareth Bale.
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Casemiro, Toni Kroos and Luca Modric will be his midfield three. Madrid’s famed “BBC” strike triumvirate – Bale, Karim Benzema and Ronaldo – have not played together for more than three months, but Bale is back in training, expected to be ready in a week or two.
An injury-free squad is something which has so far eluded Zidane, and the return of key players at such a vital part of the season will help in their aim of not only becoming the first side to retain the European Cup since AC Milan in 1990, but also winning only a second Spanish league title since 2008.
Alvaro Morata is likely to come off the bench, with Ronaldo and Benzema joined by the in-form Isco or Lucas Vazquez.
Madrid-born Madrid fan Morata, who would be a popular forward starter among fans even if all the BBC were fit, has been telling his teammates about Napoli after his two years in Italy with their perennial title winners Juventus. Napoli were then spearheaded by former Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain, and finished second last season. They also finished top of a difficult Champions League group ahead of Benfica, Besiktas and Dynamo Kiev, where they won two and drew one of their three away games.
That first-place finish earned them a second leg in the sure-to-be white hot atmosphere of a packed San Paolo on March 7, though they might have hoped for a less challenging last-16 opponent than the reigning European and world champions.
Madrid were unbeaten in their six group games but drew three times and finished second behind Borussia Dortmund after an 88th-minute Marco Reus equaliser at the Bernabeu in the final group game.
They will face a former player in Jose Callejon, plus attackers of the quality of Marek Hamsik and the Belgian Dries Mertens, who was the third highest scorer in the group stage and has scored 14 in his past 11 matches. Mertens has become an unlikely replacement for Higuain, who scored 36 league goals last season and left for a record fee between Italian clubs when he switched to Juventus last summer.
Higuain’s replacement was Arkadiusz Milik, who started well but then damaged his cruciate ligament. Fellow striker Manolo Gabbiadini struggled and left for Southampton. Mertens, 29, who was considered a super sub, stepped up and has been in the best form of his career. With Milik likely to face Madrid in at least one of the games, with the second leg at home, you can see why Napoli fancy their chances and why Maradona has made the 13-hour flight across the Atlantic.
Aleix Vidal leaves Barcelona with a huge hole to fill
The signing of Aleix Vidal made sense when Barcelona bought him from Sevilla in 2015. A Catalan who had excelled in one of Spain’s best teams on the right wing. He was fast, could defend and was six years younger than Daniel Alves, the man he was likely to replace.
It was touch and go whether Alves would leave the club in 2015, but he stayed another season before joining Juventus in the summer of 2016.
Vidal’s impact was limited in his first season. A Fifa-imposed ban on Barcelona fielding new players meant he was not eligible to play in the first 18 league games of the season. He was then given a chance and featured regularly for 10 weeks before being dropped for the final nine games of the 2015/16 campaign. He was used in the Copa del Rey, but sat on the bench when it really mattered in the final against Sevilla.
Alves remained first choice, but midfielder Sergi Roberto was often preferred at right-back.
Vidal’s fortunes did not improve much at the start of this season either. He made it onto the pitch once in Barcelona’s first 17 league games and was written off by many as being the signing Luis Enrique didn’t want and didn’t fancy. Then something unexpected happened.
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After impressing in training, Vidal was selected for Barca’s home game against Las Palmas on January 14. Not only did he play well in a 5-0 win, he scored. His teammates were delighted for him. Even Enrique smiled on the bench. In the following game at Eibar, he set up a goal in a 4-0 win. He kept his place in the side and started the last three league games.
He got another goal against Athletic Bilbao – which was greeted with hilarity by Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez on the Barca bench. Vidal’s a popular player in the dressing room and his teammates enjoyed his rise and seeing him play his best football since signing.
Vidal set up another goal as Barca hammered their Copa del Rey final opponents Alaves 6-0 away at the weekend. He was one of his side's best players, a one-man right wing like Alves in his prime and crossed for Suarez for the opening goal. Everything looked rosy for the boy from Valls, rural Catalonia – until he dislocated his ankle five minutes from time, a horrific injury where his bone pierced the skin, an injury that will keep him out for the rest of the season.
With little cover, Barca are considering signing an emergency right-back, which is allowed in Spain. Any such player must be without a club and registered to play in the Spanish league, though he could not play in the Uefa Champions League. Another option would be to use a B team player from Gerard Lopez’s promotion-chasing side who top the regional third division.
“He [Vidal] is a player we’ll miss considerably,” Enrique said. And he meant it. For once, nobody was joking about Vidal.
■ Game of the week
Real Sociedad, in fifth, against Villarreal, in sixth. Villarreal are out of sorts and now five points behind the thriving La Real, who impressed hugely in Friday’s win at in-form Espanyol. Asier Illarramendi’s goal was the pick in a 2-1 win. Real Madrid host Espanyol, Barcelona entertain Leganes.
■ Player of the week
Sporting Gijon winger Burgui, 23, is on loan from Real Madrid. He came off the bench in the 56th minute of a relegation battle at Leganes with the score at 0-0. Burgui set one up and scored another as Sporting moved just two points behind stuttering Leganes.
What else?
■ Atletico Madrid have now missed five penalties in a row, and were 2-1 down to Celta Vigo with five minutes to play at the Vicente Calderon. Two goals in two minutes from Yannick Carrasco, Antoine Griezmann, plus a surge of support from the Calderon, saw them win to stay fourth.
■ Athletic Bilbao were another club who came from behind at home to win 2-1 with late goals against a Galician club. The veteran Aritz Aduriz got the winner as Athletic beat Deportivo La Coruna to stay in contention for a European place.
■ There were only eight home goals in all the top-flight games played over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the lowest total in the league so far this season. Then Eibar played on Monday night and beat Granada 4-0. Eibar are seventh, an incredible achievement for the league's smallest club.
■ Levante are running away with the second division. They now have a 15-point advantage over Cadiz in third. An immediate return to the Primera Liga seems very likely. They beat Real Zaragoza 1-0 away at the weekend, inflicting a fourth successive defeat on the former top-flight mainstays. Zaragoza, the best-supported team in the second tier, hailing from Spain's fifth biggest city, are only four points off a relegation spot.
■ No side has kept more clean sheets at home than Real Betis' seven in La Liga this season. Betis drew 0-0 with Valencia to stay 13th.
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