Granada vs Real Madrid: Three talking points ahead of kick-off | La Liga 2019-20
Real Madrid take on high-flying Granada at the Estadio Carmenes in a tricky fixture even as they edge closer to the La Liga title.
After securing an eighth consecutive victory earlier in the week with the defeat of Alaves, Los Blancos are now just five points away from being crowned La Liga champions.
However, looks like Real Madrid would have to put their noses to the grindstone to achieve that. The Rojiblancos are in quite some form right now and have also taken points off both Barcelona and Atletico Madrid here in this season.
This will be a true test of Madrid's championship mettle, so let's look into some major issues ahead of the clash:
Free-scoring Granada to test Madrid’s stoic defense
Even though Granada have won only once against Real Madrid in their last 10 meetings in La Liga (and losing all the other nine), the next fixture might not be so lopsided after all. Unbeaten in the last three games, they've managed to score at least twice in each of those fixtures and would take some stopping here too.
Los Blancos have maintained a clean-sheet in the last five games, but there have been some hiccups.
Particularly against Athletic Bilbao and Alaves, Real Madrid folded multiple times at the back with the latter even coming as close as getting a shot cleared just off the line.
So its not all copacetic in the defense despite a clean record in the recent games, and the free-scoring El Grana too will look to ruffle a few feathers.
Real Madrid must keep Soldado at bay
Granada are too hot to contain right now, but the single biggest threat coming from them will be Roberto Soldado. A very familiar rival, the 35-year old is still going strong and has hit some sort of a purple patch. Of the six goals he's scored in the league this season, exactly half of them have come after the lockdown (three in the last four).
The ex-Real Madrid player is in a rich vein of form right now, and giving him too much space to work in can be detrimental.
His link-up play has been brilliant recently and he possesses strong aerial prowess. What's more, the Spaniard also boasts of a decent record against his former employers, Real Madrid, so Sergio Ramos and Eder Militao can expect some really testing 90 minutes in Andalusia.
Benzema to strike against bogie team again?
The Frenchman has been one of the best strikers in La Liga this century with 166 goals so far. Interestingly, 11 of them have come against Granada - the most he's managed against a single team (jointly with Athletic Bilbao).
He loves scoring in this fixture so much that he even had this streak of netting in seven consecutive league games against the Rojiblancos between 2013 and 2017! So Benzema must be licking his lips at the prospect of going mano-a-mano with them again and grab a couple more (and also edge his side to another vital three-points in the process).