Champions League, Madrid Vs Sheriff: Predicted Line-up And Kick-off Time

David Alaba and Luka Modric (Twitter @realmadriden)

JAKARTA - Real Madrid are back in action in the Champions League this mid-week. Los Blancos will host the Sheriff's debutants at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night.

In their opening game of the competition, Carlo Ancelotti's side sealed a dramatic win in stoppage time as they beat Inter Milan through Rodrygo Goes' late goal.

Undoubtedly, the Italian coach wants to build on the momentum behind the win in Milan. Real Madrid has also received support from the return of Toni Kroos to the squad, having not played for the club since May for a total of 141 days.

🎽 @Lucasvazquez91

🎽 @ToniKroos

🎽 @JesusVallejo pic.twitter.com/8YYgswWKOu

— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) September 26, 2021

However, Ancelotti received little attention following the 0-0 result against Villarreal in La Liga last weekend.

"Of course, you can ask me if his approach was wrong and I think it was wrong, but I will never officially admit it," Ancelotti explained in his pre-match press conference reported by MARCA.

"Sometimes criticism can help you improve. I don't have team A or team B, I always pick players to start certain games."

Eduardo Camavinga and Federico Valverde appear to be Los Merengues' future midfield partners, but Ancelotti feels it is important to have depth in the position.

"It's important for us that in the middle we have Modric, Casemiro, Kroos, Valverde, Isco, Asensio, and Camavinga," added Ancelotti.

"They will all be useful, what is difficult is not choosing a team. In the past I rarely had a midfield of this quality, difficulties come when you don't have players this good."

The Sheriff's visit will be a Champions League return to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, ending the use of the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano. Of course, there is hope that the atmosphere will improve to help Los Blancos' performances.

"It's a Champions League game, all games in this competition have to be well prepared," Ancelotti continued.

"We are very excited to return to the Bernabeu because we have very good memories.

"The sheriffs are playing well, we have to be careful because they are an organized team and fast in attack, we have to have maximum concentration, we need the three points."

🗣️ @MrAncelotti: "We need to be extremely concentrated during the game because we need the 3 points to start the group well." #UCL pic.twitter.com/F8t1sAaXal

— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) September 27, 2021

Line-up prediction

Real Madrid: Lunin; Lucas, Militao, Alaba, Gutierrez; Casemiro, Camavinga, Asensio; Hazard, Benzema, Vinicius.

Sheriff: Athanasiadis; Fernando Costanza, Arboleda, Dulanto, Cristiano; Addo, Thill; Traore, Kolovos, Castaneda; Yakhshiboev

Kick-off

The match between Real Madrid and the Sheriff takes place this Tuesday at 21:00 p.m. local time (CEST). For those of us who live in Indonesia, we can watch it on Wednesday morning at 02.00 a.m. Indonesian Western Time (WIB).