Next Saturday, 10th of January 2015, a Real Madrid, who is still licking the deep wounds inflicted by two consecutive and painful defeats, will entertain the Catalan side of Espanyol at Santiago Bernabeu for round 18 of Liga BBVA, on a match of the utmost importance for Los Blancos that certainly want to put an end to the less positive moment they are going through.

Last Sunday afternoon, Real Madrid experienced the sour taste of defeat when they visit Valencia at Mestalla. The mighty Che inflicted a major blow to Real’s recent hegemony and opened some breaches on the solid structures of the Madrid team. The current European and World champions weren’t able to cope with Valencia’s enthusiasm and strong mentality and ended up by losing the match 2-1. A powerful header by the Argentinean international Nicolas Otamendi sealed the win for Los Che on the 65th minute of the match and, although there was still plenty time to play, Real Madrid never managed to bounce back.

To make things worst for them, Los Blancos weren’t able to return to wins last Wednesday when they visited their neighbours and rivals of Atlético Madrid at Vicente Calderon on a Copa del Rey match. The current Spanish champions secured a 2-0 win on the first leg match and have somewhat built an apparently comfortable result for the away match, which will take place next week at Bernabeu. The return of Fernando “El Nino” Torres inspired the Colchoneros who ended up by deserving the win.

Los Blancos’ next match against Espanyol is in theory an easy match, although, the recent poor results may have a negative impact in the team and led them to a somewhat underachieving performance against the Catalan team.

As for Espanyol, who are having a very decent overall performance this season at La Liga, the match at Bernabeu is probably not the best one to bounce back from their two recent consecutive defeats. After being defeated at home by a surprising Eibar, Espanyol failed to win again when they visited Mestalla last Wednesday for the first leg of the ⅛ finals of Copa del Rey.

For the match at Bernabeu, Espanyol’s manager, Sergio Gonzalez, will probably have all his players at disposal since there aren’t any names at the team’s injury list so far.

Despite their recent poor run, Real Madrid are firm favourites for the upcoming match but if Espanyol manage to repeat some of the good performances they have displayed this season, they might cause a small upset to the current European and World champions.

Real Madrid

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

Recent Form - LLLWW

Espanyol

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - LLWWW

Possible Line-ups

Real Madrid (4-4-2) - Casillas - Carvajal - Pepe - Sergio Ramos - Marcelo - Khedira - Kroos - James Rodríguez - Ronaldo - Bale - Benzema

Espanyol (4-3-1-2) -  Casilla - Arbilla - Colotto - Alvaro - Fuentes - Sánchez - Cañas - Arbilla - Montañes - Sergio Garcia - Caicedo

Prediction

Real Madrid 2 Espanyol 1