La Liga champions Real Madrid are in home action for the first time this season on Wednesday evening as they take on Real Valladolid.
Los Blancos have collected four points from their opening two matches, both on their travels, while Valladolid are winless in their three matches so far.
Match preview
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Zinedine Zidane's men showed great character to recover from 2-1 down in Saturday's clash with Real Betis, going on to win 3-2 through an Emerson own goal and Sergio Ramos penalty.
That came on the back of a goalless draw with Real Sociedad on the opening weekend, making the second-half comeback at Estadio Benito Villamarin all the more important.
It is now 13 league games without defeat for Madrid post-lockdown, 11 of those ending in victory, with the champions making themselves incredibly tough to beat.
Los Blancos are 11 without defeat against Valladolid, too, in a run stretching back to November 2008, although they were held 1-1 in their most recent home encounter.
Barcelona's big opening-game win against Villarreal on Sunday has laid down a bit of a marker for Zidane's men, while Atletico Madrid also looked impressive in their league bow.
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A tight title tussle can surely be expected this term, meaning that dropped points in a fixture such as this one could prove pretty disastrous for Madrid further down the line.
Valladolid hardly enter this fixture in the best of form, though, having kicked off the 2020-21 campaign with two draws and a defeat.
Their home meetings with Real Sociedad and Celta Vigo finished in 1-1 draws, either side of a 2-0 reverse at Real Betis in their only away match thus far.
Valladolid have now lost four and draw one of their last five away league matches, and have won just twice on their travels in the past year.
Sergio's side finished a respectable 13th last season, but if they are to match or better that achievement then they will need to quickly get some wins on the board.
Real Madrid La Liga form: DW
Real Valladolid La Liga form: DLD
Team News
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Eden Hazard has not been involved in Madrid's opening two matches because of an ankle problem and remains a major doubt for this clash.
That is also the case for Marco Asensio and Eder Militao, with the duo yet to feature in 2020-21 due to a knee and muscular issue respectively.
Of more concern to Zidane will be the fitness of Marcelo and Toni Kroos. The latter's minor injury could see him miss out here, meaning more minutes for Federico Valverde.
Luka Jovic was handed a rare start against Betis and did not make the most of his opportunity, so Vinicius Junior is in contention to join Karim Benzema in attack here.
As for the visitors, Jordi Masip tested positive for coronavirus last week and was replaced in goal by Roberto against Celta Vigo.
Sergio has a couple of big calls to make in defence and attack, with Raul Garcia pushing for a start at left-back and Oscar Plano also hoping for a recall.
Real Madrid possible starting lineup:
Courtois; Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Mendy; Valverde, Casemiro, Modric; Isco; Vinicius, Benzema
Real Valladolid possible starting lineup:
Jimenez; Perez, Gonzalez, Sanchez, Garcia; Michel, Perez; Hervias, Plano, Rubio; Guardiola
We say: Real Madrid 3-0 Real Valladolid
Madrid have not quite clicked into gear yet but they enter this first home fixture of the campaign as strong favourites. Valladolid tend to struggle on their travels and we are going with a routine victory for the champions on Wednesday.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting a home win in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Home Win:data
Daniel Lewis
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Real Madrid win with a probability of 74.98%. A draw had a probability of 16.8% and a win for Real Valladolid had a probability of 8.26%.
The most likely scoreline for a Real Madrid win was 2-0 with a probability of 14.84%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (13.3%) and 3-0 (11.04%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (7.83%), while for a Real Valladolid win it was 0-1 (3.51%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 13.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Real Madrid would win this match.
