La Liga giants Real Madrid are set to be without the services of two important players in their next outing on the continent.
This comes fresh off an evening to forget for Los Blancos on Wednesday.
Álvaro Arbeloa’s troops marked their return to action a short time ago, seeing out the club’s league phase endeavours in this season’s Champions League.
A trip to Lisbon to face former manager José Mourinho’s Benfica lay in wait.
And when all was said and done in a thrilling affair, Real Madrid found themselves condemned to the wrong side of a 4-2 result.
This saw the Spanish heavyweights knocked out of the automatic qualification places, and into the playoffs.
And as alluded to above, in efforts to book a spot in the Last-16, Real, for the tie’s first leg, will be unable to call upon two high-profile players.
Both Raúl Asencio and Rodrygo were shown red cards late on in Lisbon tonight, giving rise to respective one-game suspensions.
Conor Laird – GSFN
