Real Madrid vs Sheriff Tiraspol Predictions

• Real Madrid are set to make wholseale changes to their line-up for the visit of Sheriff.
• Sheriff’s last three Champions League away games have all featured fewer than three goals.
• Sheriff’s last five Champions League games have all featured fewer than four goals.
• Real Madrid have not scored more than three times in any of their last eight Champions League games at home.

Sheriff can keep goals down in Madrid

There won’t be many Champions League group games this season where the home team are as short in the betting as Real Madrid are for the visit of Group D minnows Sheriff Tiraspol.

But both teams come into the match on the same number if points and there’s still a bit of ignorance about how good the visitors have been in this competition to date.

The Moldovan champions have kept four straight clean sheets in Europe now and did a real job on experienced Champions League campaigners Shakhtar to get the 2-0 home win a fortnight ago.

Undoubtedly, the size of their task is up a few levels from that match when they head to the Bernabeu Stadium – where Real have not lost since their return following its latest facelift.

But we don’t expect this to be a walkover for the 13-time European champions at all, especially after Carlo Ancelotti intimated that he would be resting a few of his key players.

The Real Madrid’s reserves don’t possess as much top-level European experience as in the past with Ancelotti presiding over a squad that is one of the youngest the club has had in many years.

So things could get sticky if Sheriff hold out for long spells and the Madrid public’s patience wears thin.

That said, Ancelotti is not going to leave himself without some insurance on the bench so we reckon Real will have enough to build a comfortable winning margin before the final whistle.

It’s worth noting that four of the last six Real games have been 0-0 at the break, so that could offer a way in via the HT/FT betting, but we are going to try to play it a little safer by taking fewer than four goals in the match.

Sheriff’s defence is solid and we fully expect them to have eleven men behind the ball for most of this, but once the first goal goes in it could all change – reflected in our correct score recommendation of 3-0.