My Morning Routine
Woke up earlier than usual today because I wanted to catch the lineup news before breakfast. Grabbed my phone while still in bed and opened the Real Madrid app first thing. Refreshed like twenty times but nothing popped up there yet – total bummer.
The Hunt Begins
After my coffee, fired up the laptop and checked Twitter. Scrolled through fan accounts and Spanish football reporters for solid info. Kept seeing different names floating around – some guy said Asensio was starting, another claimed Rodrygo was benched. Got real confusing real fast.
Finally spotted this legit-looking tweet from Mario Cortegana – dude’s usually right about Madrid stuff. Screen-shotted his predicted lineup just in case I needed to compare later.
Official Confirmation Chaos
Around noon Madrid time, my phone started blowing up with notifications. Official site finally dropped the starting XI but their damn website crashed immediately. Tried loading the page three times – kept getting that spinning circle of death. Swore at my wifi router but turned out everyone was crashing the servers.
- First attempt: Official site – ERROR 503
- Second attempt: ESPN app – outdated rumors
- Third attempt: Marca’s live blog – paywall blocked me
Ended up finding the full squad list on some random but reliable fan forum. Copied-pasted everything into my notes app double quick.
Verifying The Goods
Cross-checked the list with three different sources to be sure:
- Real Madrid’s Twitter backup account
- That Cortegana tweet from earlier
- Football España’s breaking news alert
Big shocker was seeing Nacho at center-back instead of Rüdiger – Carlo’s full of surprises lately. Also noticed no Hazard again, not even on the bench. Kinda expected that though.
Final Player List
Here’s the confirmed starting lineup I managed to piece together:
- GK: Courtois
- DEF: Carvajal, Militao, Nacho, Mendy
- MID: Modric, Tchouameni, Kroos
- FWD: Valverde, Benzema (c), Vinicius
Bench had some interesting names too – Rodrygo warming the pine again, Ceballos back in the squad after forever.
Wrap Up
Took me like two hours just to confirm twelve names! Ended up posting the finalized list in our supporter group chat before even eating lunch. Few buddies thanked me – felt proper chuffed about that. Might try using RSS feeds next time though, this manual hunting ain’t worth the headache.
