Teams training at opposing grounds before Champions League fixtures is the norm and these days it often doesn’t catch managers out. If there’s something a club wants to keep secret then they’re hardly going to display it the night before.
The last time it appeared a manager had his secret line-up linked was with Brendan Rodgers in 2014, when he took his Liverpool side to the Bernabeu and fielded a seriously weakened team.
However, it wasn’t a shock. The Madrid media all saw the training session and on the morning of the match the team was named perfectly by Marca and others. Liverpool fans thought the Spanish media had gone crazy, and then it turned out true.
France’s Yahoo have someone there and say the team trained in a 4-2-3-1 formation, and name the side as: Buffon – Kehrer, T. Silva, Kimpembe, Bernat – Verratti, Marquinhos – D. Alves, Draxler, Di Maria – Mbappé
It’s explained that part of the training was countering pressing, which they must expect from Manchester United, with players testing Verratti and Marquinhos by hounding them.
