Real Madrid have full squad available for Eibar trip
Ceballos again misses call up as Zidane picks from full squad ahead of the trip to play Eibar in LaLiga as the manager ponders rotations in Ipurua.
Real Madrid will travel to Ipurua to play Eibar on Saturday lunchtime with a full complement of players, an all-too-rare luxury for Zinedine Zidane this season, as he again leaves some disappointments behind.
Achraf, Vallejo, Llorente, Ceballos and Mayoral all miss out as does the Frenchman’s son, Luca, who is alternating between the seniors and reserves. The Real coach called up 17-year-old youth team stopper Álvaro Benito to make up the numbers in training on Friday. Benito, who stands at over 6’ 3”, joined Madrid from Mallorca at the beginning of the 2015-16 season and is tipped to make a senior appearance before too long.
The squad will travel to Bilbao on Friday and stay overnight there before making the short trip to Ipurua for the Saturday lunchtime kick-off.
Zidane to ring the changes in Ipurua
Zidane’s plan is to make several changes from the side that beat PSG on Tuesday, with the so-called “Plan B” coming into the action against José Luis Mendílibar’s high-flying side.
Nacho and Theo Hernández will be called into defence while in midfield Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, who are feeling their way back from injury, will probably be joined by Isco, who was on the bench against PSG, to hand Casemiro a rest. Gareth Bale is expected to come into the attack with Karim Benzema probably starting on the bench, although whether Zidane opts to play the Welshman as a lone front man as he did in the 1-0 defeat at Espanyol two weeks ago remains to be seen.
The full squad list is: Navas, Casilla; Carvajal, Ramos, Varane, Nacho, Marcelo, Theo; Kroos, Modric, Casemiro, Asensio, Isco, Kovacic; Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale and Lucas Vázquez.
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