How Real Madrid and Inter could line-up in the UCL

9:45am on Tuesday 3rd November 2020
By Martin Macdonald

Eden Hazard is in line to make his first Champions League start of the season when Real Madrid take on Inter on Tuesday.

The Belgian started the game against Huesca at the weekend and even got on the scoresheet before being withdrawn on the hour mark.

The front three of Hazard, Karim Benzema, and Marcos Asensio worked well in that La Liga clash, so Zinedine Zidane may opt to start them together again to get some kind of consistency within their ever-changing forward line.

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Inter: Squad, FC Ratings, Matches, Formations

Toni Kroos was rested from the starting XI at the weekend but he is sure to be recalled for Champions League duty, probably at the expense of Luka Modric, with the German coming into the midfield three with Federico Valverde and Casemiro.

Madrid do have defensive issues to solve, however, as they are running out of players who can feature at right-back. Nacho, Dani Carvajal, Alvaro Odriozola are all out, while Lucas Vazquez, who was asked to play in the position against Huesca, came off injured in that game.

Ferland Mendy came off the bench to play right-back, and could be asked to do so again, but the more likely scenario is that Eder Militao shifts out wide with Raphael Varane partnering Sergio Ramos in the middle.

Martin Odegaard is unavailable due to injury.

Inter drew 2-2 with Parma on Saturday without Romelu Lukaku leading the line, and they will once again be without the influential Belgian when they face Real Madrid.

Alexis Sanchez, too, will likely miss out.

Ivan Perisic started up top versus Parma, and will probably do so again after he got on the scoresheet.

Aleksandar Kolarov assisted the late equaliser on Saturday and might have earned himself a starting berth against Los Blancos. Danilo D'Ambrosio, too, could be recalled at the expense of Andrea Ranocchia.

Milan Skriniar and Matias Vecino will likely not feature.