News: Real Madrid vs. Sevilla [La Liga Day 23; 2/9/13; 4:00 PM EST] [R]

Real Madrid vs. Sevilla

Venue: Santiago Bernabeu

Time: 4:00 PM EST

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Real Madrid:
Real Madrid 4-0 Getafe (27/01; La Liga)
Real Madrid 1-1 Barcelona (30/01; Copa del Rey)
Granada 1-0 Real Madrid (02/02; La Liga)
Sevilla:
Sevilla 3-0 Granada (28/01; La Liga)
Atletico Madrid 2-1 Sevilla (31/01; Copa del Rey)
Sevilla 2-1 Rayo Vallecano (03/02; La Liga)

Key absences
Real Madrid: Iker Casillas; Raphael Varane; Pepe; Xabi Alonso (doubt)

Sevilla: Diego Perotti; Piotr Trochowski; Cicinho; Ivan Rakitic (suspended)

Squad:

GK: Diego López, Antonio Adán and Jesús Fernandez

Defenders: Sergio Ramos, Raul Albiol, Fabio Coentrao, Ricardo Carvalho, Alvaro Arbeloa & Pepe

Midfielders: Michael Essien, Ricardo Kaka, Sami Khedira, Luka Modric, Mesut Ozil and Jose Callejon,

Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Higuaín, Alvaro Morata.

Absence due to injury: Xabi Alonso,Raphael Varane and Iker Casillas,

Absence due to Technical decisions: Marcelo, Nacho, Di María.

Marcelo was pretty bad last game, looked completely out of shape. Guess we now know why he doesnt get called up.

Why? Because he's out of match fitness since he hasn't played for a really long time due to injury? Not calling him up or playing him in matches where he should be getting his fitness back as we're getting into a very important stretch in the season is just mind boggling. To use the "he's not in shape" excuse is lame because... well... has anyone seen Benzema lately??!

Thank you. Wouldn't the best way for Marcelo to get into shape be to play some fcuking games?

Marcelo should play as many games as possible or soon we will have another Kaka on our hands.

Let's not go too far now...

Excuse for what? Its a general comment. He had a broken leg so obviously he wasnt on a treadmill for the past 3 months. His game is based on explosiveness and tireless running and he came in for what, 20 min against Granada and looked completely out of it.

Varane is injured? How bad is it :O

He actually played a half before that too. So in 65 minutes, he doesn't look his old self, and that's it. He doesn't get called up anymore? He's supposedly to magically get his match fitness back?

Yup, his season is over, no more games for him.

Not bad enough for him to miss the Man U game

Pepe is back, Modric did the press conference so maybe he'll play

Not sure if Pepe will start. Probably bring him in around the 50/60 minute mark.

So Xabi is missing this through a hernia. I am a complete noob when it comes to medical things, but wasn't a hernia the reason that Kaka gave for his shitty performances for a year? Could Xabi be going through the same?

Matches against Sevilla are usually fun to watch. The Marcelo issue has left me clueless as to when he will actually return to match fitness...or maybe that's the whole point!

......................Lopez

....Arbeloa......Ramos......Albiol......Fabio

............Sami.............Modric

Callejon...........Ozil............Ronaldo

.....................Benzema

My team for tonight.

^ I would rest a couple of players from that list.

After last week. We need a good win, a good display to take into the Man U match.

Diego Lòpez, Arbeloa, Ramos, Albiol, Coentrao; Essien, Modric, Cristiano, Kaká, Higuaín y Benzema.

Kaka starts..

interesting...

Marcelo is not even on the bench ... damn that shity injury he received back in October ... he is way too important for us, and now for the most important games, especially the one with Man United we aperrantly are gonna be without him - after he recovered from that injury he played very little and looks like that is out of form ...

I hate when in big games we can't use all our best - without Casillas and Marcelo against United is not gonna be the same.

I'm pleased that Kaka gets some playing time. We're still paying him after all. Ozil is rightfully rested.

Nice team, that's a whole different midfield 3 ha? Quite the depth we got.

Lineup -

Diego Lopez, Arbeloa, Albiol, Ramos, Coentrao, Essien, Modric, Kaka, Cristiano, Benzema, Higuain.

Edit - Oops, someone beat me to it

Is he playing Gonzalo on the wing opposite Ronnie? I'm having a little bit of trouble imagining this lineup spatially.