Mourinho to minimise changes

Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho says he will deploy a strong lineup against Champions League quarter-final opponents APOEL.

Real have one foot in the semi-finals following their 3-0 triumph over the Cypriots in the first leg last week, but Mourinho says he will not make many changes to the team for Wednesday’s return leg at the Santiago Bernabeu.

“Not many people think that APOEL can come here and win 4-0, but we have to respect our fans and the opponent,” Mourinho said.

“There will be very few changes and we will play with a very strong team.”

The Portuguese coach then revealed that Angel Di Maria will likely see more playing time on Wednesday after the Argentine made his first appearance in over a month as a late substitute in Saturday’s 5-1 thrashing of Osasuna.

“He is an important player to the team and his thigh injury was hard to recover from,” Mourinho said.

“He has been training well for the last 10 days, but training is one thing, playing is another.

“He showed some positive things against Osasuna and tomorrow he will not play the whole match, but surely more than 10 minutes.”