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Real Madrid could secure a much-needed European win against Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg on Wednesday as they seek a place in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
The reigning continental champions have won three and lost as many of their first six matches in the league stage, leaving them in an unfamiliar position. Carlo Ancelotti’s usually ruthless superstars have fallen short of their standards this season, but a win over Salzburg would almost guarantee them a place in the play-off round.
Madrid may have lost theirs the recent Supercopa de Espana final with Barcelona, but are generally in impressive form since the start of the year. The capital club have scored 19 goals in their last five games in all competitions and could top Salzburg at the Santiago Bernabeu, with the struggling Austrians conceding 18 in five defeats and boasting just one win in Champions League until now.
Here 90 minutes guide to the key clash for Madrid.
Real Madrid vs RB Salzburg H2H record
This is the first competitive meeting between Real Madrid and Salzburg.
Current form (all competitions)
|
Real Madrid |
RB Salzburg |
|---|---|
|
Real Madrid 4-1 Las Palmas – 19.01.25 |
RB Salzburg 3-0 Austria Klagenfurt – 14.12.24 |
|
Real Madrid 5-2 Celta Vigo (AET) – 16.1.25 |
RB Salzburg 0-3 PSG – 12.10.24 |
|
Real Madrid 2-5 Barcelona – 01.12.25 |
RB Salzburg 2-2 Rapid Wien – 12.07.24 |
|
Real Madrid 3-0 Mallorca – 01.09.25 |
RB Salzburg 4-0 Hartberg – 12.04.24 |
|
Deportivo Minera 0-5 Real Madrid – 01.06.25 |
Hartberg 1-1 RB Salzburg – 30.11.24 |
|
Earth |
TV channel/live stream |
|---|---|
|
Great Britain |
TNT Sports 5, Discovery+, Discovery+ App |
|
United States |
Paramount+, fuboTV, TUDN.com, Univision NOW, TUDN App, ViX, TUDN USA, UniMas |
|
Canada |
DAZN Canada |
Madrid are already short of a right-back following Dani Carvajal’s season-ending injury, but they will also be without substitute Lucas Vazquez on Wednesday night through suspension. Federico Valverde will probably find himself in the Spaniard’s place, who has been used in defense this season.
Eder Militao is also out for the season with a torn ACL and Eduardo Camavinga is out in the center of the park. Aurelien Tchouameni is a doubt to feature against Salzburg after missing out weekend victory over Las Palmas because of leg problems.
Vinicius Junior and Luka Modric are available after missing the triumph at Las Palmas through suspension, while David Alaba made his long-awaited return from injury during a 14-minute spell this weekend.
Predicted line-up of Real Madrid against RB Salzburg (4-2-3-1): Courtois; Valverde, Asencio, Rudiger, Mendy; Ceballos, Modric; Rodrygo, Bellingham, Vinicius; Mbappe.
Talk about a baptism of fire for new Salzburg manager Thomas Letsch, who oversees his first competitive game in charge of the club since returning to the Bernabeu. The German briefly took charge of Red Bull in 2015 as interim boss, but returned permanently after the sacking of the ex-Liverpool assistant Pep Lijnders as head coach.
Letsch will be without the influential Karim Konate for Salzburg’s first game of the new year, while Maurits Kjaergaard is also out through injury.
Bobby Clark, a former Liverpool player, is a question mark for the performance along with teammates Amar Dedić, Alexander Schlager and Daoud Guind.
Expected line-up of RB Salzburg against Real Madrid (4-4-2): Blaswich; Morgalla, Baidoo, Piatkowski, Terzic; Yeo, Capaldo, Bidstrup, Nene; Gloukh, Ratkov.
Salzburg have been poor in the Champions League this season and could be a bit rusty on Wednesday considering they haven’t played a competitive game since mid-December. Letsch has had time to work with his new team, but he will not expect miracles in Madrid.
Despite all the flaws in Los Blancos’ defence, they were in a confident mood in the final third and could add to the tally in midweek. Kylian Mbappe has been in excellent goalscoring form and Vinicius’ return to the starting XI will only increase their chances of hitting Letsch’s new team.
