Real Madrid take on the visitors Borussia Dortmund in the round 3 match of UEFA Champions League group stage. The match will be played on Tuesday, October 22nd at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu (Madrid).
Real Madrid are not as convincing as last season. Under Ancelotti, "Los Blancos" have shown some interesting trends. They seem to perform well every other season. Carlo made a triumphant return to Madrid, but the 2022/2023 season only brought a Copa del Rey victory. What prevented Florentino Pérez from parting ways with the Italian was the previous negative experience of a similar decision. Ancelotti repaid the trust by winning the Supercopa, La Liga, and the Champions League last season, with a victory in the final against Borussia Dortmund. However, things are not as bright this time. There are questions for the president, who spent the summer focused on resolving the Mbappé saga and acquiring Endrick, but didn’t look for replacements for Nacho and Kroos. Meanwhile, Alaba hasn’t recovered, and Carvajal was sidelined for a long period in October. "Los Galácticos" started dropping points in La Liga from the very first matchday and continued to struggle. In the Champions League, they nearly stumbled in the opening game at home against Stuttgart but managed a 3-1 win in the dying minutes. However, they then went to France and lost 0-1 to Lille.
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Borussia Dortmund performed well in the Champions League, advancing from a tough group and reaching the final — only to lose 0-2 to the Spanish giant. In the Bundesliga, though, there was a clear decline: a club that had narrowly missed out on the title to Bayern Munich in the previous season and finished with equal points, eventually lost the battle for fourth place to RB Leipzig in the spring. Still, by then it was clear that fifth place in Germany would be enough to secure a Champions League spot. Even so, Edin Terzić left his position as head coach in the summer, and veterans Marco Reus and Mats Hummels also departed, while Niclas Füllkrug was sold. Dortmund made seemingly quality replacements, bringing in players like Anton, Jan Couto, Gross, Bayer, and Gerassi. Nuri Şahin, who returned to his hometown club last winter, took over as head coach. But in the Bundesliga, they’ve only managed to win half of their matches, with a heavy 1-5 loss to Stuttgart among their defeats. However, it's a different story in the Champions League, where the Germans thrashed Club Brugge 3-0 away and crushed Celtic 7-1 at home.
The two clubs have faced each other 15 times in the Champions League. While the "Black and Yellows" have defeated Real three times, "Los Galácticos" have won seven, including their last three encounters. The "Royal Club" is fully capable of more or less replicating the result from last season's Champions League final at home. The bet is on a Real Madrid win with a -1 goal handicap.
Prediction for the match: Real Madrid to win with -1.0 handicap.
