Injuries a problem for Spanish sides in Champions League action


Madrid, Oct 2 (IANS): Real Madrid, Real Sociedad and Sevilla all face vital UEFA Champions League games away from home on Tuesday, with all of them having injury problems in their defence.

Nacho Fernandez and Antonio Rudiger are Real Madrid's only fit central defenders for their visit to play Napoli, with Eder Militao out for the season and David Alaba suffering a groin strain, Xinhua reports.

After their dramatic injury-time win over Union Berlin in their opening group game, the visit to Napoli will be vital to decide which of the two strongest sides in the group is likely to finish top and assure a more comfortable passage in the last-16.

Real Sociedad travel to play Salzburg after a 3-0 win in the Basque derby on Saturday night, but that win came at a price, with Kieran Tierney suffering a hamstring injury, while Robin Le Normand was substituted after suffering muscle fatigue and almost certainly won't start.

A home draw against Inter Milan has put some pressure on the side from San Sebastian, who need to avoid defeat in Austria in what looks like a tough and even group.

Sevilla's draw at home to Lens in the first round of group games has also complicated matters for Jose Luis Mendilibar's side, although they will have Marcos Acuna available to face PSV Eindhoven.

Former Sevilla striker Luuk de Jong will be PSV's main threat, but Mendilibar travels with Erik Lamela, Marcao and Tanguy Nianzou all doubtful of starting, while Mariano Diaz is out with a muscle problem.

 

  

Top Stories


Leave a Comment

Title: Injuries a problem for Spanish sides in Champions League action



You have 2000 characters left.

Disclaimer:

Please write your correct name and email address. Kindly do not post any personal, abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful or similar comments. Daijiworld.com will not be responsible for any defamatory message posted under this article.

Please note that sending false messages to insult, defame, intimidate, mislead or deceive people or to intentionally cause public disorder is punishable under law. It is obligatory on Daijiworld to provide the IP address and other details of senders of such comments, to the authority concerned upon request.

Hence, sending offensive comments using daijiworld will be purely at your own risk, and in no way will Daijiworld.com be held responsible.