Leganes vs. Real Madrid – Prediction, Lineups, Highlights | Copa Del Rey
When Real Madrid travels across the city for their last-eight matchup with Leganes on Wednesday, a spot in the Copa del Rey semi-finals will be at stake.
Leganes will attempt to recover from their home loss to Rayo Vallecano, while Los Blancos will seek a response to their most recent league loss to Espanyol.
After an effort by Carlos Romero, who was lucky to avoid a red card for an earlier tackle on Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid’s La Liga title bid took a hit on Saturday as they traveled to the RCDE Stadium and lost to relegation-threatened Espanyol by a slim margin of 1-0.
Ahead of their derby matchup at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday, leaders Real Madrid are currently only one point ahead of second-place Atletico Madrid following their first league loss since December 4.
Barcelona, meanwhile, is just four points behind their Clasico opponents, indicating that the Blancos still have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to win La Liga again.
They will, however, put their title challenge on pause in order to concentrate on Wednesday’s cup match. The visitors will make it to the quarterfinals for the second time in three seasons after advancing through two rounds of Copa del Rey play.
After giving up a two-goal lead in their last-16 match, Carlo Ancelotti’s team defeated fourth-tier Deportivo Minera 5-0 to start their Copa del Rey campaign. They then defeated Celta Vigo 5-2 in extra time.
Given that Barcelona have previously won easily at Butarque this season—Mbappe, Federico Valverde, and Jude Bellingham all scored in November’s 3-0 away triumph over Leganes—the 20-time Copa del Rey champions will be the overwhelming favorites to advance from the quarterfinal round.
After advancing through four rounds of play to set up a difficult matchup with the defending European champions, Leganes are now playing in the Copa del Rey quarterfinals.
In the second round, Leganes defeated fourth-tier Estepona by penalties after defeating Cuidad de Lucena. They then narrowly defeated Cartagena from the Segunda Division 2-1.
Miguel de la Fuente’s penalty and Diego Garcia’s goal in the 86th minute gave Borja Jimenez’s club a 3-2 victory over Almeria in last month’s quarterfinal, defeating another second-tier team.
The victories against Cartagena and Almeria contributed to Los Pepineros’ five-game winning streak across all competitions. Their outstanding play also included a hard-fought goalless draw against Athletic Bilbao at San Mames and a surprising 1-0 victory over Atletico Madrid at home.
In Friday’s La Liga home match against fellow Madrid team Rayo Vallecano, Leganes’ unbeaten streak came to an end. Sergio Gonzalez was sent off straight away before Pathe Ciss scored the game-winning goal to send Los Pepineros to a narrow loss, dropping them to 16th place with a two-point gap to the bottom three.
Leganes, who have lost four of their last five home games, know they will have a difficult time surprising anyone in Wednesday’s cup match. However, they might find some motivation in the fact that they defeated Real Madrid in their most recent Copa del Rey quarterfinal, moving on to the next round after a 2-2 draw over two legs in the 2017–18 competition.
Enrique Franquesa is still out for a considerable amount of time for the hosts due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury he suffered in November.
After being sent off due to a hamstring injury during the first half of Friday’s loss to Rayo, midfielder Seydouba Cisse has joined Franquesa in the medical room.
The former Celta Vigo midfielder is now anticipated to start Wednesday’s cup match after Renato Tapia replaced Cisse in the 23rd minute of the 1-0 loss.
Gonzalez, whose suspension will be served in La Liga, will play in the backline even though he was sent off against Rayo.
Eduardo Camavinga is a serious doubt after missing the previous five games due to a hamstring injury, while Real Madrid is still without Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao.
After Antonio Rudiger suffered a hamstring injury in Saturday’s loss to Espanyol, Ancelotti will have to make at least one change. The defender is anticipated to be sidelined for approximately three weeks.
Raul Asencio, 21, is set to play alongside Aurelien Tchouameni in central defense for Wednesday’s cup match after replacing Rudiger in the 15th minute at the RCDE Stadium.
Andriy Lunin, who has been given the opportunity to play in Real Madrid’s first two Copa del Rey games, is probably going to be protected by Asencio and Tchouameni.
Given that Manchester City and Atletico Madrid are the next two games, Ancelotti might be tempted to make more changes to his team in order to freshen things up. Ferland Mendy, Luka Modric, and Brahim Diaz are all possible additions to the squad for the quarterfinal meeting.
Real Madrid possible starting lineup:
Lunin , Vazquez, Tchouameni, Asencio, Mendy; Valverde, Modric; Brahim, Bellingham, Vinicius; Mbappe
Leganes possible starting lineup:
Soriano; Altimira, Rosier, Gonzalez, Nastasic, Cruz; Raba, Neyou, Tapia, Rodriguez; De La Fuente
