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<\/p>\nAll eyes will be on the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u as concern continues to grow inside Real Madrid ahead of the highly anticipated clash with Inter Milan in the opening game of their Champions League campaign. Jos\u00e9 Mourinho is not facing just a difficult European test; he enters the match with a lengthy list of absentees that could force him to completely reshape his side.<\/p>\n
The crisis has reportedly reached the point where the Portuguese manager could be without as many as 10 players due to injuries and suspensions, while Real Madrid look to bounce back from their 1-0 defeat to Real Betis. As Inter prepare to travel to the Spanish capital, the outline of the lineup Mourinho could field has begun to take shape.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to the predicted lineup published by The Standard<\/em>, Mourinho is expected to opt for a 3-5-2 formation against Inter, with Thibaut Courtois in goal and Dean Huijsen, Antonio R\u00fcdiger and Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 forming the back three.<\/p>\n On the flanks, Marc Cucurella is expected to start on the left, while Denzel Dumfries could operate on the right. In midfield, Mourinho is tipped to rely on Brahim D\u00edaz, Jude Bellingham and Federico Valverde, with Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior leading the attack.<\/p>\n The predicted lineup comes amid a genuine midfield crisis at Real Madrid, with Eduardo Camavinga, Arda G\u00fcler and Bernardo Silva confirmed to be unavailable through suspension. The sanctions stem from incidents during the previous Champions League campaign, leaving Mourinho with extremely limited options for his first European match of the season.<\/p>\n The absences do not stop with the suspended players. Ferland Mendy, Ra\u00fal Asencio and Rodrygo are all on the injury list, while Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni, Tiago Petar\u0161 and Endrick have returned to training after spells on the sidelines. However, their availability had not been fully confirmed at the time of the report.<\/p>\n As for Endrick, Mourinho has already made his position clear, confirming that the Brazilian striker will be on the bench but will only be able to play for around 10 minutes due to his lack of full match fitness.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the availability of Tchouam\u00e9ni and Tiago Petar\u0161 remains uncertain, along with Andriy Lunin and \u00c9der Milit\u00e3o, making it even more difficult to determine Mourinho\u2019s final options ahead of the match. Tchouam\u00e9ni\u2019s return in particular could provide Mourinho with an additional midfield solution if he receives medical clearance.<\/p>\n Real Madrid\u2019s 1-0 defeat to Real Betis has only increased the importance of the Inter clash, especially as the match represents Mourinho\u2019s first major European test during his second spell at the club. Madrid conceded a late goal from Troy Parrott, while Mbapp\u00e9 missed a stoppage-time penalty, leaving the team empty-handed.<\/p>\n Despite all these problems, Mourinho still has attacking weapons capable of making the difference, most notably Mbapp\u00e9 and Vin\u00edcius, while Bellingham and Valverde are expected to shoulder greater responsibility in midfield.<\/p>\n Therefore, the clash with Inter will be more than just Real Madrid\u2019s Champions League opener. It will be an early test of Mourinho\u2019s ability to deal with an injury and suspension crisis and find the right lineup from a severely limited pool of options. If the predicted scenario becomes reality, we could see Real Madrid line up with three defenders and five midfielders against the Italian side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All eyes will be on the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u as concern continues to grow inside Real Madrid ahead of the highly anticipated clash with Inter Milan in the opening game of their Champions League campaign. Jos\u00e9 Mourinho is not facing just a difficult European test; he enters the match with a lengthy list of absentees that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[933],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rreal-madrid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stad10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stad10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stad10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stad10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stad10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stad10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stad10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stad10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stad10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stad10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}