France, April 7 -- Madrid go into the clash on the back of a 2-1 defeat at relegation-threatened Mallorca on Saturday night. 

The setback came in Mbappe's first match for Real Madrid after a month on the sidelines with a knee injury.

Coupled with the 2-1 win of pacesetters Barcelona at Atletico Madrid, Arbeloa's side lie seven points behind in second place with eight games remaining of the 2025/26 La Liga season.

Bayern meanwhile scored three times in the last 20 minutes to beat Freiburg 3-2 to maintain a nine-point advantage at the top of the German Bundesliga.

"We're not thinking about not winning the match," said Arbeloa on the eve of the game against Bayern.

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