Real Madrid Return to the Champions League: AEK Athens Opposition Preview

This Wednesday (the 4th of November), Real Madrid return to the UEFA Champions League for match day four of the league phase, as they take on Greek side AEK Athens away from home. 

It has been a great start to the competition so far, with wins over Inter Milan, someone else and AS Roma. 

But what can we expect from AEK Athens this time round? 

Last season, AEK won the Greek Super League for the first time since 2018, finishing two points above their closest competitors Olympiacos, who themselves hosted Real Madrid in this competition last season. 

Without any doubt the player in their squad that fans will be most familiar with is striker Luka Jovic, who made a big money move to the Bernabeu back in the summer of 2019 with a view to competing with and eventually replacing Karim Benzema in the starting XI. Safe to say, it very much did not work out at all. 

Which in some ways, is a little surprising, given the club have a very good hit record with Bundesliga signings - Mesut Ozil, Jude Bellingham, Toni Kroos, and now Yan Diomande. But on this occasion, it just wasn't to be. 

Hungarian forward Barnabas Varga is the team's top scorer so far this season, with seven strikes, including five in the league. That said, he is yet to find the back of the net in the Champions League so far. 

It has been a difficult start to the competition so far for the Greek side. On match day one, they defeated Austrian outfit LASK 1-0, but have since lost 3-1 to Shakhtar Donetsk at Stamford Bridge in London, as well as 5-1 away to Manchester City. 

A defeat to City like that can happen, but the fact they conceded 3 to Shakhtar further exacerbates the point that they can be got at defensively, and that there should be plenty of joy for Real Madrid going forward. Even in the win over LASK, they did give up a f ew big opportunities that would have been taken by better opposition. 

Truth be told, without wanting to be disrespectful, this should be very comfortable for Jose Mourinho's side. This could bring the perfect opportunity for some rotation - perhaps Carlos Espi for Kylian Mbappe up front, maybe a chance to let Vinicius play himself back into form ahead of his domestic return against Celta Vigo. 

Possible AEK Athens side against Real Madrid; Brignoli; Rota, Moukoudi, Relvas, Pilios; Majer, Arriaga, Marin, Zubkov; Varga, Jovic.