Bale and Ronaldo ready for Villarreal clash

Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale will be available for Real Madrid against Villarreal on Wednesday, Zinedine Zidane has confirmed.

Published : Sep 21, 2016 02:26 IST

The superstar duo missed Sunday's 2-0 win at Espanyol due to illness and a hip injury respectively.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale will be available for Real Madrid against Villarreal on Wednesday, Zinedine Zidane has confirmed.

The superstar duo missed Sunday's 2-0 win at Espanyol due to illness and a hip injury respectively.

It mattered little as James Rodriguez and Karim Benzema provided the goals in a comfortable success that maintained Madrid's perfect start to the LaLiga campaign.

Head coach Zidane will now be boosted by the return of Ronaldo and Bale for Wednesday's meeting with Villarreal at Santiago Bernabeu.

"Bale and Cristiano are ready for tomorrow's match," said the Frenchman in a media conference.

However, Real could be without defender Pepe, who sat out training on Tuesday.

"Pepe didn't train today, but the other four defenders can play. Nacho can play in the centre and also on the side," added Zidane, before playing down Madrid's strong start to the 2016-17 season.

"We've had little time to prepare for the match, but we are prepared," he said.

"We are going to try to get the three points, we don't look at others. We haven't won anything. The records are nice and we want to continue winning. I take it day by day.

"It's never easy to win. We have to think about our match. If we want to win something we have to win our matches."