Real Madrid Injury Crisis No Excuse Against Atletico in Champions League

Gareth Bale and Luka Modric are injured and will miss Real Madrid's Champions League clash against Atletico on Wednesday night, but that is not an excuse for a bad result for Los Blancos.

The teams have met seven times and Madrid have not beaten their local rivals once yet, this season.

And four of those seven times, both Modric and Bale played, but Madrid still ended up losing twice and drawing twice.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

Carlo Ancelotti knows this and his comments before the game about the injury crisis show that the coach understands that the problem he has against Atletico isn't about squad numbers.

He told Radio anch'io (via Sport):

"

We hope to be competitive until the end of the Champions League. For the Atletico game, we are not concerned. We have to find solutions to some absences, especially Bale, who takes medical tests today. It's a big challenge that we face, at home, with as much optimism as possible. The Bernabeu will give us a big lift.

"

"We are not concerned," were the most interesting words. And perhaps he is right not to be concerned about the injuries, because he has much bigger problems.

The main one being that Diego Simeone has his number, on speed-dial.

Modric being out for six weeks is a big miss for Madrid and would be a huge one for any side.

In Asier Illarramendi Madrid have a replacement, who can also add some fight in the engine room, although he may not be match fit.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

That is Ancelotti's own fault, having refused to rotate his squad so stubbornly for much of the season.

Bale's injury, meanwhile, may not be that much of a blow. The Welshman will miss up to three weeks, per Sport, but given his form this season nobody will be crying about it too much at the Bernabeu.

Instead Isco will start, joining the midfield and pushing James Rodriguez into the slot on the right, where he is comfortable.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

Karim Benzema, meanwhile is hoping to make the clash, although AS say he may not be ready until the last minute.

Should he fail to make it, Javier Hernandez will step in. The Mexican striker did a good job when he came on for Bale against Malaga on Saturday, creating a goal for Cristiano Ronaldo.

No, Ancelotti's problem prowls around in the opposition dug-out.

Atletico have perfected sitting back and letting Madrid hit them with attacks, which break on the defensive rocks of Miranda and Diego Godin, before counter-attacking.

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press

Admittedly, in the first leg of this tie, which finished 0-0, Madrid had a bit too much of the ball for Simeone's liking.

As the coach said after the game, per the Daily Mail:

"

In the first half the opponents were good. Oblak was great, especially for Bale's chance. And the best thing was the reaction we had. Any other team that had been damaged as we were in the first half would have ended up conceding. But the game became much closer to what we had imagined at the start.

"

What Simeone means by that is he was pleased with the way in the second half Atletico had a fairer share of the ball.

He's usually happy with 40 percent of possession against Madrid, with Los Blancos taking the other 60.

While the actual figures aren't important, he doesn't want his team to get too overrun, like they were in the first half of the first leg.

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press

Jan Oblak, as Simeone mentions, was the hero, making two brilliant saves and four decent ones in that 45 minutes of football.

Madrid need to repeat their domination of the game and push those figures to 70-30, 80-20, even.

Possession alone is not going to be enough, but with a large amount of the ball they will try to create a large volume of chances.

And with Cristiano Ronaldo's form improving (he bagged his 50th goal of the season against Malaga, hitting that number for the fifth year running), one of them will surely fly in.

Then again, this being Atletico, perhaps not.