Next Friday, 12th of December 2014, the all-powerful Real Madrid will travel to Andalusia to measure forces with Almeria for round 15 of the Spanish Liga BBVA, on a match where Los Blancos will certainly want to extend their fantastic winning streak and keep their closest contenders at bay.

Nineteen wins a row...this is Real Madrid’s current record on all competitions and the milestone that has already placed Carlo Ancelotti at Los Blancos hall-of-fame. The current European champions look unstoppable, both on domestic and international competitions, and their win over Ludogorets on the last group stage match of the UEFA Champions League, which took place last Tuesday’s night, didn’t come as a surprise. The Bulgarian champions failed to pose a real threat to Real at Bernabéu and, led by the larger-than-life Cristiano Ronaldo, Los Blancos smashed the modest Eastern European team by 4-0. Carlo Ancelotti produced some changes in his team but those adjustments didn’t even pinch Real’s overall game quality.

Last Saturday night, Real Madrid overcame Celta de Vigo by 3-0 at Santiago Bernabéu, but their win was far from easy, especially during the first-half, where the Galician team withheld the home side’s attacking avalanche by reducing the spaces between lines quite effectively. Although, a “hoax” penalty offered the current European champions the possibility of ending Celta’s resistance on the 36th minute.

Real Madrid aren’t, by all means, unbeatable, nevertheless, no team has managed to threaten their superiority over the last few months and it is not likely that Almeria is able to pose any real threat. For the clash at Andalusia, Carlo Ancelotti will not be able to rely on the contribution of the skilled Croatian midfielder Luka Modric, who remains sidelined due to a recent and complicated injury. The Colombian wonderboy, James Rodríguez, is also in doubt for the upcoming clash.

As for Almeria, Los Rojiblancos are definitely not going through the best of moments, as they’ve failed to grant a win on their last eight La Liga matches. After snatching a very complicating win over Real Bétis on a Copa del Rey match in the middle of the last week, Almeria sucumbed again at the hands of Eibar as they were clearly smashed by 5-2 at the Basque Country for their last league round. Almeria lost their last three home matches and the clash against Los Blancos is probably not the best opportunity to turn their bad luck around.

Real Madrid are firm favourites for the next Friday’s clash, as Almeria does not look by any means capable of threatening the current league leaders’ hegemony.

Almeria

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LWLDL

Real Madrid

Stats: W-5 L-0 D-0

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Possible Line-ups

Almeria (4-2-3-1) - Ruben - Navarro - Velez - Trujillo - Dubarbier - Verza - Corona - Zongo - Mendez - Hemed - Bifouma

Real Madrid (4-4-2) - Casillas - Carvajal - Pepe - Sergio Ramos - Marcelo - Illarramendi - Kroos - Isco - Ronaldo - Bale - Benzema

Prediction

Almeria 1 Real Madrid 3