Villarreal-Real Madrid team news: Bale, Benzema, Ronaldo start

Zinedane Zidane called on Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo to start for the first time together in LaLiga since October of last year as he names a strong eleven to take on Villarreal on Sunday night and wrestle back the top spot from Barcelona, who went ahead earlier in the day when they beat Atletico Madrid

Villarreal

Fran Escriba has Roberto Soldado back for the first time all year but he is not fit to start while every other position on the team is at full strength. The side who have been compared to Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid when they were extremely defensive, have struggled of late and went out of the Europa League during the week after losing the first leg 4-0 and not being able to recover.

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Villarreal: Asenjo, Musacchio, Victor Ruiz, Jaume Costa, Gasper, Trigueros, Bruno, Castillejo, Dos Santos, Bakambu, Adrian.

Real Madrid

Zinedine Zidane has been forced to call Pepe back from the bench as Raphael Varane has been ruled out for a number of weeks with a thigh injury. Gareth Bale makes his first start of the year and Karim Benzema keeps his place despite a poor showing against Valencia. Morata is breathing down his neck with a goal against Espanyol last weekend but Zidane wants to see the BBC in action. It is their first start since October when Ronaldo scored a hat-trick and Alvaro Morata scored late on to give Real Madrid a 4-1 win.

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