Next Sunday, 22nd of February 2015, a Real Madrid, who are still recovering from their shocking defeat against Atlético, will travel to Alicante to measure forces with Elche at Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero for round 24 of the Spanish Liga BBVA. Los Blancos are still hurt in their pride after being hammered by their neighbours Atlético two weeks ago and will certainly take this match against Elche to try to increase the team’s motivation levels and to maintain the point lead over Barcelona at the league table.

After the Vicente Calderón’s nightmare, Real Madrid returned to wins at La Liga at the expenses of Deportivo La Coruña last Saturday. The Galician team put up a very decent performance at Santiago Bernabéu and have tried for more than once to cause Real a major upset. The current European and World champions’ performance was fairly bland once again but had nevertheless proved to be enough to overcome Deportivo. With plenty of problems in the centre of the defence, Carlo Ancelotti was forced once again to place Nacho alongside with Varane as centre backs and the team’s defence line continued to show plenty of shakiness on several important moments of the match. Real’s game was very predictable and without James Rodriguez’s creativity, the team seem to struggle when to produce quality attacking movements. Cristiano Ronaldo is also not going through a very positive period and his lack of inspiration is also causing several problems to Los Merengues.

The upcoming fixture against Elche will certainly not be a simple walk in park, especially if we have in mind some of the Franjiverdes recent performances. For that particular match, Carlo Ancelotti will not be able to rely on the contribution of Luka Modric, James Rodriguez, Sergio Ramos, Fábio Coentrão and Khedira, all currently sidelined due to injury.

As for Elche, the Comunidad Valenciana team is currently going through a very positive period that started with a solid home win over Rayo Vallecano early this month. The Franjiverdes managed to bounce back from their heavy home defeat with Barcelona at the end of January and are now on a good streak with two consecutive wins. Last weekend, Elche have snatched a fantastic away win at Ipurua against Eibar with their goalkeeper, the Polish giant Przemyslaw Tyton, putting up a remarkable performance.

Despite of Elche recent improvements and Real Madrid’s less inspired moment, Los Merengues are firm favourites to win the next Sunday’s clash.

Elche

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - WWLLW

Real Madrid

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - WWLWW

Possible Line-ups

Elche (4-2-3-1) - Tyton - Suárez - Lomban - Roco - Albacar - Pasalic - Gonzalez - Garry Rodrigues - Niguez - Fajr - Jonathas

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

Prediction

Elche 1 Real Madrid 2