Champions League Group A: Real Madrid takes on Galatasaray, PSG hosts Brugge

Real Madrid would look to bounce back from a drab draw in LaLiga with a win against Galatasaray, while PSG will look cement its top spot in the Champions League.

Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema will be raring to go against Galatasaray.

Real Madrid will entertain Galatasaray in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Wednesday in a game where a win will go a long way in assuring its place in the knockout stage of the Champions League.

Zinedine Zidane’s men go into the game after another disappointing display in the Spanish League which saw it held 0-0 at home by struggling Betis and Zidane needs his strikers to be more effective than at the weekend.

Gareth Bale is again missing from the Real Madrid squad due to the calf injury he picked up in the last international break. James Rodriguez is also sidelined with a muscle problem, which is taking longer to mend than expected, so Zidane doesn’t have too many different options from the side that fired blanks at the weekend.

One likely change will see Fede Valverde back to inject some energy into central midfield and Marcelo could step in to give more attacking projection at left-back, while Zidane may opt to replace one young Brazilian winger, Rodrygo with another, Vinicius Jr.

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Galatasaray will be cheered on by around 3,000 travelling fans, but its cause is not helped by an injury to striker Radamel Falcao, who has travelled with the team but won’t form part of the Matchday squad, while fullback Sener Ozbayrakli is also out after being injured in Galatasaray’s last game.

PSG aiming for top spot

PSG boss Thomas Tuchel will look to maintain the five-point lead over Real Madrid in the Champions League Group A.

 

Paris Saint Germain’s (PSG) won 5-0 in Bruges and will look to cement its top position in Group A with a win in the return leg in Paris. Despite losing to 1-2 to Dijon last week, Thomas Tuchel's side is comfortably seven points clear at the top of Ligue 1, and would look to maintain a five-point lead over Real Madrid in Group A.

PSG has a number of injury concerns at the moment, with key midfielders Ander Herrera and Marco Verratti again expected to miss out with ankle and calf issues respectively. Defenders Thomas Meunier and Thilo Kehrer are also doubts, while Neymar is still out with the hamstring problem that he picked up during the last international break.

Meanwhile, Brugge could miss the services of centre-back Clinton Mata due to a hamstring problem, but Matej Mitrovic recovered from injury to feature at the weekend and could feature at the back. Krepin Diatta, Brandon Mechele and on-loan Percy Tau were named on the bench for Saturday's domestic fixture but all three should start here.