Kolkata, Jun 18 (IANS): Valencia CF coach Alberto Celades stated Real Madrid will be a hard nut to crack as they have been defensively solid this season besides having some of the best players around.

Valencia take on Real on Thursday night, with the latter five points behind league leaders FC Barcelona but have a game in hand. Valencia are placed eighth in the table with 43 points.

"Real Madrid are a very good team with some of the best players in the world. They have a lot of depth and will make things difficult for us," Celades said ahead of the game in quotes shared by LaLiga.

"If there's anything different about them this season, it's how solid they are defensively. They're conceding very few goals. I think they're the team with the fewest goals conceded in LaLiga. A team filled with great players, a great manager. Real Madrid are always among the best," he added.

Real Madrid midfielder Isco has been ruled out of the match after sustaining a right hamstring injury.

Valencia will also be without Brazilian central defender Gabriel Paulista who endured a muscle injury in training and missed their clash against Levante too.

"With Gabi (Paulista) we don't want to force the situation. We have a lot of games in a very short period of time coming up, so we figured it would be a big risk to play him against Real Madrid," explained the coach.

"Mouctar Diakhaby is in the squad and ready to play."