Zinedine Zidane, coach of European champions Real Madrid, raised eyebrows Monday by including his 18-year-old son Luca in the 20-man squad for Tuesday’s UEFA Super Cup clash against Sevilla.
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Casilla watched from the substitutes’ bench as Madrid won the Champions League final against city rivals Atletico in May and is delighted to be given the chance to start in a European showpiece event.
Zidane is likely to give Alvaro Morata the nod ahead of Benzema and he is adamant the striker, who re-joined Madrid from Juventus in June, is ready for the challenge ahead.
Forwards: Benzema, Vazquez, Morata and Mariano.
A world record fee, eclipsing the £85 million Real Madrid paid Tottenham for Gareth Bale three years ago.
It may seem arguable, but Real Madrid has a complete team at the moment.
In all other positions, Los Blancos have at least two high-quality players.
Real expectedly has the upperhand even if they are undermanned, but Sevilla could pull off the win in a close match as they had been the fitter team, winning all six of their preseason matches so far.
The French manager is still thinking which players will be suitable for the job.
One eye-catching factor from those games is that the full-backs have been in cracking shape going forward, Marcelo netting three in the three aforementioned matches and right-back Danilo scoring the only goal against Bayern on Thursday.
“The absence of Ronaldo and Bale does not worry me, they played in the final stages of Euro 2016 and need a break after a demanding season”, Zidane continued.
Sevilla, like every season in recent history, have been forced to re-invent as a host of players leave in big money moves.
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“He is ok, but he hasn’t played the last two matches (.) I’m very happy that he’s with us, because he’s worked very hard, he’s done the whole pre season but we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.” explained Zidane.
