article_snippet.sent: The games are tight, usually low scoring and uncomfortably physical for Real who, Sergio Ramos and Pepe aside, are short of players who have quite the same appetite for a battle.
article_snippet.sent: Carlo Ancelotti may well pick both on Wednesday night, and a third centre back in Rafael Varane as Carlo Ancelotti looks to match the visitors for force.
article_snippet.sent: If all three are picked Pepe would step into a midfield enforcer’s role that Pepe has not occupied since the days of Jose Mourinho.
article_snippet.sent: There are seven players who a booking away from missing the first leg of the semi-final and German midfielder Toni Kroos, who is among them, has already lit the blue touch paper suggesting Real Madrid’s players are experts in pressuring the referee.
article_snippet.sent: Toni Kroos is a yellow card away from European suspension while Ancelotti has several players missing .
article_snippet.sent: Sergio Ramos and Pepe were missing from defence and Luka Modric and James Rodriguez from midfield.
article_snippet.sent: Supporters bemoaned the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema should still have been able to carry the team to victories but that view did a huge disservice to the way Luka Modric controls games, James Rodriguez loads the bullets for the front three to fire, and Pepe and Sergio Ramos pace enables the team to play ten yards higher up the pitch than when the team are not available.
article_snippet.sent: Just when it seemed Real would be at full-strength for the run-in Luka Modric has gone down with knee ligament trouble likely to rule James Rodriguez out for six weeks and Benzema, Bale and Marcelo are also all missing on Wednesday night.