Leganes vs Real Madrid: Match preview | OneFootball

Real Madrid are set to visit the Estadio Municipal de Butarque on Wednesday, February 5th, at 20:00 CET as they take on Leganes in the quarter-final of the Copa del Rey. The Whites will be looking to get back to winning ways just days after suffering a shock defeat against Espanyol in La Liga and secure qualification to the two-legged semi-final of the King’s Cup.

Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed in his squad announcement that Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe will miss out due to minor fitness issues, whereas Antonio Rudiger, David Alaba and Eduardo Camavinga are also absent. Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao, meanwhile, are long-term absentees owing to ACL tears, so will miss the visit to Leganes for the cup clash as well.

On the other hand, Thibaut Courtois has been granted a rest, so Andriy Lunin will be the favourite to take over the goalkeeper role, as he has done in both of Madrid’s Copa del Rey games this season.

Los Merengues have already beaten Leganes once in La Liga this season, with a 3-0 success at Butarque being delivered by goals from Kylian Mbappe, Federico Valverde and Jude Bellingham. They will look to repeat the exploits once again, this time in a knockout fixture.

Ancelotti has only two fit central defenders available for the game in Jesus Vallejo and Raul Asencio, while the likes of Jacobo Ramos, Lorenzo Aguado, Mario Rivas have also received call-ups from the youth ranks. Likewise, Chema and Gonzalo have been included in the roster too.

Real Madrid are entering the game having seen off Deportivo Minera and Celta Vigo in their previous rounds of the competition with 10 goals to their name in the Copa del Rey. Their success against Celta in the round of 16 was following extra time, in which Endrick bagged a brace and Valverde scored a stunner.

Leganes, meanwhile, come into the game off the back of two winless results in La Liga against Athletic Bilbao and Rayo Vallecano and sit 16th in the table. In the Copa del Rey, they have knocked out Cartagena and Almeria in their last two rounds, prior to setting up an interesting clash with Real Madrid.

The hosts are set to be without Enric Franquesa and Seydouba Cisse for the match and will otherwise field their best starting eleven against the Whites.

The two teams have history in the Copa del Rey from the 2017/18 season when they faced each other in a two-legged last 8 affair, which Leganes won against all odds. While Real Madrid claimed a first leg success thanks to Marco Asensio, Los Pepineros won 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu, thus knocking out the Spanish giants on away goals.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side will be out to avert a crisis and avoid a similar result on Wednesday and take another step to winning only their second Copa del Rey crown in the last decade.