Next Saturday, 20th of September 2014, the current European champions, Real Madrid, will travel to La Coruña to measure forces with the local Deportivo at Riazor for the fourth round of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

After two consecutive defeats for La Liga, Real Madrid managed to rally the troops and build an impressive 5-1 win over FC Basel last Tuesday’s night on their first UEFA Champions League match of the season. Los Merengues were always in control of the match and did not give plenty of opportunities to shine to the Swiss side. After such a thrilling win, Real have hopefully managed to erase the painful home defeat against Atlético Madrid last weekend and the somehow embarrassing stumble at Anoeta at the end of August on the 2nd day of La Ligafrom from their supporters’ minds.

Ancelotti is yet to be successful in building a strong and consistent team so far this season as he is still experiencing some unexpected difficulties in inserting the newcomers into the team’s structure he built last season.

The match at Riazor will certainly be far from easy and although Deportivo has only returned to the Spanish football top tier this season, they tend to be a fairly complicated team when playing in front of their enthusiastic supporters.

For next Saturday’s match, Carlo Ancelotti will still not be able to rely on the contribution of Carvajal, Sami Khedira and Jesé Rodríguez, all sidelined due to injury.

As for Deportivo, they managed to grab their first win of the season last Monday when they surpassed Eibar at the Basque country and they will certainly want to cause Real Madrid another big upset next Saturday.

After a demanding campaign at Liga Adelante last season, el Depor returned to La Liga and so far they are actually doing good. Four points in three matches is not particularly bad for a team that is undergoing some financial problems and was only promoted this season. Their new manager, Victor Fernández, widely known for the work he has done some years ago at Deportivo’s Galician rivals, Celta de Vigo, accepted the challenge of commanding this high-maintenance vessel at a fairly complicated competition such as La Liga, and so far, there are already signs of quality work in the team.

The last time both sides met at Riazor was for a friendly match in August 2013 and back then Real Madrid smashed the home side 4-0. Despite their unconvincing recent La Liga performances, Los Merengues are firm favourites to win the match, since at this stage of the season, Deportivo might still not have what is necessary to overcome a team such as Real Madrid.

Deportivo La Coruña

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - WDLLL

Real Madrid

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

Recent Form - WLLWL

Possible Line-ups

Deportivo La Coruña (4-1-4-1) - Lux - Laure - Lopo - Sidnei - Luisinho - Bergantinos - Juanfran - Medunjanin - Dominguez - Cavaleiro - Postiga

Real Madrid (4-2-3-1) - Casillas - Arbeloa - Pepe - Sergio Ramos - Marcelo - Modric - Kroos - James Rodríguez - Ronaldo - Bale - Benzema

Prediction

Deportivo La Coruña 1 Real Madrid 2