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Real Madrid will be ‘under pressure’ to win its first Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk after the Ukrainian team was affected by coronavirus cases, according to Spanish media.
The Whites will kick off their European campaign on Wednesday night and hope the competition will provide fresh momentum after a high and low season so far.
Zinedine Zidane’s men were beaten at home to the newly promoted Cádiz on Saturday, prompting a locker room investigation and concern from several first-team stars, with AS reporting that the team is expected to beat a depleted Shakhtar in the Bernabéu.
Madrid are now ready to be left without their captain Sergio Ramos, who injured his knee at the weekend, and the report says Zidane must ‘rehabilitate’ his players to recover from his surprising defeat.
They will face a team that has been “severely depleted” by a virus outbreak, he adds, and their coach Luis Castro admitted they are “living a nightmare” after eight players yielded positive cases.
Meanwhile, injury concerns mean they arrived in the Spanish capital with just 13 stars in shape. “Now we live in an atmosphere of fear,” Castro said. “Suddenly running out of a dozen players is a nightmare for a soccer team.”
The Marca cover has a more positive outlook, saying that the Spanish giants are “hungry for the Champions League” as they seek their 14th trophy this season.
Nor will they have winger Eden Hazard, who continues to recover from a muscle problem and will not return until after the next international break.
Zidane faces an uphill task to boost morale at the club after the team failed against Cádiz, as he questioned his players’ ‘attitude’ and ‘intensity’ against Cádiz, Marca reported this week.
He held crisis talks with the team before the first European game, with big names Sergio Ramos, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric expressing their dismay at the team’s performance.
A must-see Classic against rivals Barcelona is on the horizon this weekend, which means they have little time to regroup, so a win over Shakhtar is vital.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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