No Cristiano Ronaldo tonight for the Levante vs Real Madrid Copa del Rey match. The superstar winger has been rested by Jose Mourinho alongside a few other big names.
A fortnight ago, Cristiano Ronaldo scored thrice as Real Madrid destroyed Levante 8-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu. The Portuguese’s feat matched Karim Benzema’s achievement in that encounter as Mesut Özil and Pedro Leon got the remaining goals.
On Thursday night, only Benzema and Pedro Leon among the first leg’s four different goal scorers will feature in the Levante vs Real Madrid game. Knowing that Los Blancos have a crucial meeting against Villarreal in La Liga this weekend, Jose Mourinho rather opted to leave out some of his top guns such as Cristiano Ronaldo who is said to be suffering from a light flu anyway.
Above all, the Spanish giants have an 8-0 advantage over Levante which should definitely see them through to the next round of the Copa del Rey – with or without the vital influence of Cristiano Ronaldo and co. Still, Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho has insisted ahead of the match that the players chosen for it will not relax behind the ball just because of the advantage that the team possesses going into the second leg of the tie. In his pre-match press conference, the “Special One” told the media:
“We are Real Madrid. We have responsibilities and each player wants to compete and earn a spot in the team.
“We have to respect Levante, the Copa del Rey competition as well as our fans at the stadium, who will be rather cool because they believe the game is over for them considering the score in the first leg.
“We will give a serious performance and we will try to win the match to keep up our good streak. That's why we'll use a strong line up."
Jose Mourinho has selected 19 players to contest the Levante vs Real Madrid match. Among those, 5 are home-grown lads. The man-squad is as follows:
Adam, Jesus Pacheco, Pepe, Carvalho, Mateos, Ramos, Garay, Arebloa, Lassana Diarra, Gago, Kaka, Granero, Khedira, Pedro Leon, Juanfran, Juan Carlos, Morata, Benzema.
On Thursday night, only Benzema and Pedro Leon among the first leg’s four different goal scorers will feature in the Levante vs Real Madrid game. Knowing that Los Blancos have a crucial meeting against Villarreal in La Liga this weekend, Jose Mourinho rather opted to leave out some of his top guns such as Cristiano Ronaldo who is said to be suffering from a light flu anyway.
Above all, the Spanish giants have an 8-0 advantage over Levante which should definitely see them through to the next round of the Copa del Rey – with or without the vital influence of Cristiano Ronaldo and co. Still, Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho has insisted ahead of the match that the players chosen for it will not relax behind the ball just because of the advantage that the team possesses going into the second leg of the tie. In his pre-match press conference, the “Special One” told the media:
“We are Real Madrid. We have responsibilities and each player wants to compete and earn a spot in the team.
“We have to respect Levante, the Copa del Rey competition as well as our fans at the stadium, who will be rather cool because they believe the game is over for them considering the score in the first leg.
“We will give a serious performance and we will try to win the match to keep up our good streak. That's why we'll use a strong line up."
Jose Mourinho has selected 19 players to contest the Levante vs Real Madrid match. Among those, 5 are home-grown lads. The man-squad is as follows:
Adam, Jesus Pacheco, Pepe, Carvalho, Mateos, Ramos, Garay, Arebloa, Lassana Diarra, Gago, Kaka, Granero, Khedira, Pedro Leon, Juanfran, Juan Carlos, Morata, Benzema.
