UEFA Champions League Prediction: Real Madrid – AS Monaco (20-01-2026)

Alvaro Arbeola will make his UEFA Champions League debut in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium versus AS Monaco. This win would be a huge step to reach their current goal – finishing in the top 8.

2026 for the Real Madrid community started with a shock. After failing to win the Spanish Super Cup final against Barcelona 2-3, Xabi Alonso was fired with immediate effect.

This caused a lot of controversy, since the results were not that poor, as Los Blancos are 2nd in the La Liga and 7th in the UEFA Champions League. Likely, the cause of it was locker room difficulties and now we might see some out of form Real Madrid starts blossoming again.

Real Madrid suffered 2 losses so far in the competition, one coming in an away fixture versus Liverpool 1-0 and the second in the most recent match versus Manchester City.

Although AS Monaco are unbeaten in the past 5 fixtures, they found themselves in only 18th position. They were able to find a draw against the bigger competition in Manchester City, Tottenham and recently recorded a wins over Galatasaray and Bodo/Glimt.

However, AS Monaco are a very unpredictable team and lately showed very poor form in the Ligue 1. The French side lost two games at the end of the year and opened 2026 with 3rd straight loss against Lyon at home 1-3.

This blasted them to 9th place in the Ligue 1 and manager Sebastian Pocognoli must turn things around as soon as possible to avoid Alonso’s fate.

With Juventus remaining to play in the last round, AS Monaco must collect points now to seek for further qualification. However, Real Madrid started the year without fully fit Kylian Mbappe and few other stars, who should be available for this fixture.

A. Arbeloa definitely wants to make the first impression great and a win over AS Monaco could erase fans memories about the recent changes faster. With Kylian Mbappe pushing for a top scorer spot, we are expecting him to score at least a goal versus his former club – a popular pick at reliable bookmakers – and he’ll definitely be the one to take the penalties if awarded.