Real Madrid will be out to prove they are capable of winning games without the help of leading striker Ronaldo when they host Olympiakos Piraeus in the Champions League at the Bernabeu in Madrid, on Wednesday.
The Brazilian scored two of his side's goals in their 3-0 win over Alaves at the weekend, but will miss the match against the Greek champions because he is serving the second match of a two-match ban given to him following his sending off against Juventus last season.
Real made a shaky start to the present campaign, slumping to three successive defeats including a 3-0 trouncing by Olympique Lyon in their opening match in Group F, but a 3-1 win over Athletic Bilbao in midweek and their victory at Alaves makes them confident they have turned the corner.
"Talking about a crisis after just three games was madness," fullback Michel Salgado said after the Alaves game.
"Our attitude is good, we are more compact and are beginning to play more like we did last season when we controlled games and did a lot of damage on the break."
But the team continues to be overly dependent on the finishing power of Ronaldo, affectionately known as "el gordo" (fatty) by his team mates.
"El gordo walks around for 70 minutes, but he gets one chance and puts it away - he always makes the difference," said midfielder Pablo Garcia.
In Ronaldo's absence, his fellow countryman Robinho, who started the Alaves match on the bench, is set to partner Raul in attack.
SELECTION QUANDARY
With Zinedine Zidane still in the final phase of recovery from a thigh injury, Real coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo faces a quandary over selection in midfield.
In the Lyon defeat he took the more conservative option of playing Garcia and Thomas Gravesen in midfield, but the recent fine form of the more creative Guti could lead him to change his tactics.
At the back, Jonathan Woodgate missed the Alaves match through suspension after his calamatous debut against Bilbao in which he scored an own goal and then got sent off.
The England centre-back is available for Wednesday's match, but will have his work cut out if he is to displace Ivan Helguera and Sergio Ramos from the starting line up after they helped Real keep a first clean sheet of the season against the Basques.
Opponents Olympiakos lead the Greek championship with a 100 percent record but although they have been unstoppable in domestic competition, like Real they got off to a poor start in Europe with a surprise 3-1 home defeat against Rosenburg.
Coach Trond Sollied has made no secret of his dissatisfaction with his side's form even though they extended their winning run to four matches with a 2-0 win over Akratitos at the weekend.
"If we play against Real the way we did against Akratitos we should stay at home," the Norwegian said after the game.
Probable teams:
Real Madrid: 1-Iker Casillas; 2-Michel Salgado, 6-Ivan Helguera, 4-Sergio Ramos, 3-Roberto Carlos; 23-David Beckham, 12-Pablo Garcia, 14-Guti, 8-Julio Baptista; 10-Robinho, 7-Raul
Olympiakos: 71-Antonis Nikopolidis; 5-Michalis Kapsis, 19-Thanasis Kostoulas, 32-Giorgos Anatolakis, 14-Dimitris Mavrogenidis; 21-Grigoris Georgatos, 6-Ieroklis Stoltidis, 15-Yaya Toure, 11-Predrag Djordjevic, 10-Rivaldo; 23-Michalis Konstantinou
Referee: Markus Merk (Germany)
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