Real Madrid will play its first match at the Club World Cup on Wednesday, 18 June. The team will play against Al-Hilal. This is one of the central meetings in the preliminary stage. Red Bull and Pachuca will also play in Group H. According to bookmakers Real will confidently take the first place, but then there are already possible variants.

Real will take the field for the first time with head coach Xabi Alonso in an official match. We can expect radical changes from the Spanish specialist. The era of Carlo Ancelotti is over. Now Real will rebuild on a very risky attacking model. The key player should be newcomer Trent Alexander-Arnold. The Briton will also make his debut for the new team at the Club World Cup.

Real have already activated several transfers under the new coach. Argentine Franco Mastantuono has officially moved to the Madrid club, but it is at the Championships that he will play his last tournament for River Plate. Centre-back Dean Huyssen, on the other hand, will already be available.

It is important that the main attacking stars will also play at the World Cup. Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius can brighten up the season without titles.

Bayer was one of the boldest teams in Europe. Obviously, Real will now take the attacking route. This will surely provoke a series of productive matches.

Al-Hilal did not win the Saudi Arabian championship, could not reach the final in the local Asian Champions League. The season has also turned out to be a disappointing one for such a stellar team.

The big news of the summer in Saudi football is the appointment of Simone Inzaghi. The former Inter coach will now try to adapt his 3-5-2 scheme to the local realities.

In terms of names, the club's squad remains very solid. The transfer value of players exceeds 150 million euros. In attack, the best is the Serbian link of Aleksandar Mitrovic and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. Ex-Zenit player Malcom is still collecting bright figures as well: the Brazilian notched 19 assists in the last championship alone.

It is assumed that Xabi Alonso will do without radical changes in the squad in the first match. The team will keep the scheme 4-3-3. There may be experimental combinations in the squad. Real will definitely not be able to quickly readjust to the complex requirements of the young coach.

Bookmakers quite logically raised the total for this meeting. It is expected more than three goals on the basic assessment. It is possible to look even higher. The teams would have chosen in favour of attack, and with two new star coaches, this arrangement looks quite logical. There will be a lot of free zones. Real with Xabi Alonso will definitely not play for keeps.