Gareth Bale’s last season in Madrid

Replacement of Karim Benzema

Carlo Ancelotti has a hard time finding a replacement for Karim Benzema and in the Clásico he can find himself in the situation of not having the French striker. The 9 of Real Madrid finished the game against Mallorca with pain in the lower part of the calf of his right leg. The white scorer requested the change, but the coach had already exhausted the five substitutions allowed by the regulations. Benzema went to Valdebebas on Tuesday to work with the physiotherapist and tomorrow, Wednesday, he will undergo an MRI to determine if he has an injury and to what extent .If the worst omens are confirmed, Ancelotti will have to find a replacement for his top scorer. A task that, the last one he had to reassign, he entrusted to Gareth Bale. There have not been many occasions in which Benzema has put Ancelotti in that dilemma. The Frenchman has been a starter in 34 of the 41 games that Real Madrid have played this season. Of his seven absences, four have been due to injury and three due to a technical decision. In those seven games, the Madrid coach has not found a replacement that convinces him. Jovic, Mariano, Asensio, Isco and Bale have played like 9 in those games.

Luka Jovic on the point

The Serbian is, in theory, the first replacement for Benzema. But when Ancelotti decided to give the Frenchman a rest in the league match in Elche, the coach cited some inconvenience by the Balkan to give Mariano the starting job. The Hispanic-Dominican only started again against Alcoyano in the Cup, a match in which the former Eintracht player was not available due to being sick with covid. Interestingly, Mariano scored the final 2-0 in the last Clásico played at the Bernabéu, before the pandemic.