Real Madrid Face Valencia in Super Cup Without Bale, Benzema

Real Madrid will be without two of its integral players, Welsh forward, Gareth Bale, and French striker, Karim Benzema, in Wednesday’s Super Cup clash with Valencia in Saudi Arabia.

While the former Lyon player is out due to a hamstring problem, Gareth Bale is down with Illness described as a chest problem.

Both players were present last weekend in the Spanish la Liga game against Getafe in a 3-0 win away from home to keep in touch with Barcelona at the top of the La Liga standing.

Barcelona, on their own part, will face, Atletico Madrid on Thursday in the new format of the Spanish Super Cup, which now involves four teams. The winner of both games will now face off in a final game on Sunday.

The four teams that will participate include, League winners, second-placed and third-placed teams as well as Copa Del Ray champions.

The Spanish Football Federation made a massive change to the competition, which used to be a two-legged match between La Liga and Copa Del Ray Champions last year.

The change includes a deal with Saudi Arabia to play the next three editions in the Middle East country with four teams to participate even though the move has been heavily criticized.

Atletico Madrid at the weekend beat Levante 2-1 while Barcelona drew 2-2 at Espanyol with Valencia beating Eibar by 1-0.

Barcelona tops the La Liga with 40 points while Real Madrid follows closely with the same points, only trailing on an inferior goal difference as Barca leads with 26 plus goal difference two more than Zinedine Zidane’s Los Blancos.

Valencia, on their own part, are sitting sixth with 31 points, nine behind both teams while Atletico Madrid are situated in third with 35 points, 5 points away from sitting at the top of the log.

Real Madrid are fancied at 1.94 to win Valencia, while Valencia are backed at 3.87 to see off Madrid.

Written by: Idowu Daniel Ademiju