Make or break in Tenerife

Real Madrid know that they must come away from Wednesday's league game at Las Palmas with a win or face being plunged into crisis.

Last season's champions have registered just five points from their five outings in La Liga this term and desperately need to improve on their 12th placing in the table.

But logging a win at Las Palmas is never easy for teams from the peninsula, the two and a half hour plane journey from Madrid is tiring and worse still, this time Real will be without a handful of their star players.

Real will be without Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo and Steve McManaman on Wednesday, giving coach Vicente Del Bosque a headache to organise a side capable of overcoming a tricky Las Palmas on their home turf.

Santiago Solari or Aitor Karanka may be drafted in at left-back but Del Bosque still has to cover Figo's place on the right wing. To make matters worse, key players Claude Makelele and Zinedine Zidane will join the exodus when Real host plucky Basques, Athletic Bilbao, on Saturday - both players have been called up for France's international friendly with Algeria on October 6.