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Juve is such a well-managed club by Irish2003

Yet again, agreed across the board. Zidane himself was a bit of a hothead, and I hope he can get Ramos to hit the right balance between aggression and keeping the edge. Casemiro's game is built entirely on force and I don't see that changing (heck, having some steel isn't a bad thing; I'd love to have Kante in our Makelele role), but if he can cut out just a few cards a year, it would help a lot too.

That's a great point on Juve, and I really think they are consistently one of the best coached teams. I can't find the link now, but was just reading something about how their Marcello Lippi teams were so well-trained in practice they could easily adapt to a player being temporarily injured, red-carded, playing from ahead/behind, etc without much input from the coach, and it looks like both Conte and now Allegri have kept it going. In contrast, Madrid has won so many games on the razor's edge this year, and unfortunately we chose to press against another very talented team and paid the price that we might not face against a team like Deportivo La Coruna. Both RM & Barca are IMO lacking in the tactics department but have so much raw talent they can still beat anyone short of the other top 4-5 teams even if you and I were calling plays, but guys like Buffon, Dybala, Kedhira, Alves, etc have all also played & won at the highest level and are playing such a nice team game now. I was wrong on Bayern advancing, but do think Juventus will get by a very fun to watch Monaco team, then edge their doppelganger in Atleti to take old big ears back (with RM winning La Liga; don't think we can pull off the double after Saturday's mess).

As for our Merengues, if it were up to me, I think I would go:
Navas/Casilla (have to keep reminding myself this poor man's name is not the same as San Iker)
Marcelo, Ramos, Pepe, Carvajal; Nacho & Varane if needed
Casemiro
Kroos, Modric
Isco, James
Ronaldo

We'd have Casemiro to provide cover, two of the best possession midfielders in Kroos/Modric, James & Isco for creativity, and the all-time leading CL scorer with Cris up top. Bale or Benz/Morata can come in if we needed a late spark, and Asensio & Vasquez are still there if we need guys who can run all day.

As an aside, if you have not been to the Bernabeu, I definitely recommend it. I've obviously been to ND Stadium and another ~30-40 NCAA/NBA/NFL/MLB venues, but there is something really surreal about the Bernabeu, especially for a Madrid guy.