Ready For Girona

Los Blancos are all set to face Girona away tomorrow at the Estadio de Montilivi.

Training

Before heading off to Girona the team had a training session. U19s goalkeepers Moha and Darío were called up for the session. Luca trained indoors while K-Nav, G-Money, Carvajal and Mateo continued their recovery. (Video)

Presser

FROM REALMADRID.COM

Zidane: “We’ve got a tough game in store against Girona”
by Borja Miranda

“I’m certain that Real Madrid is the best club in the world”, declared the Whites’ coach.

Zinedine Zidane addressed the press in the media room at Real Madrid City to preview his side’s trip to Girona for the teams’ LaLiga Matchday 10 fixture: “We’re aware that Montilivi is a difficult place to go to. We’ve got a tough game in store, as they all are in this league. We won’t be going there thinking about the fact that it’s our first competitive fixture at their place. Tomorrow will be our first-ever outing there”.

“The schedule is what it is. We play on Sunday and then again on Wednesday. It’s back-to-back away games but we’re used to playing a lot of games in quick succession. We just take things one game at a time and the main thing for us is tomorrow’s match. There will then be time to talk about the next one”.

Situation in Catalonia
“We’ll travel as we always do and will kick off at 4:15pm. I’m just focused on tomorrow’s game. There’s a lot of talk, but I’m not going to enter into the debate. We’ll travel and be focused purely on the game, which is the important thing for me. It needn’t be seen as a special occasion. It’s just another LaLiga fixture. We follow the latest news, but our focus is solely on the game”.

Fitness of Bale and Keylor
“They’re doing better and we’ll take a look at them next week. They still haven’t trained with the group and we’ll see where we’re at next week. I can’t say whether they’ll be involved in London, because it all depends on their progress. We’ll make a decision on Monday. [Gareth] Bale is in good spirits. He’s feeling better now that he’s training out on the pitches, although he’s not yet rejoined the team. We’ll see how things go next week”.

“I believe that Real Madrid is the best club in the world, I’m in no doubt about that. You can then debate about the team itself, but I think that we were the best side around last season, with all that we won. Every single year you then have to go out and do the same thing, but, as a club, I’m certain that this is the best club in the world”.

Current campaign
“There are a lot of areas in which we can improve, that’s what we’re aiming to do. However, the assessment of the season is positive. We’re sitting in third in LaLiga, top our group in the Champions League and have lifted two pieces of silverware. My assessment is positive.

Ceballos and Llorente
“They’re doing well. They’re players that are very strong in physical terms. Dani hasn’t played all that much for us, but has had game time with the national team. As for Marcos, he’s always ready to play and the other day he gave the team good balance. He did very well in Fuenlabrada”.

Casilla
“He’s Real Madrid’s goalkeeper, he’s relaxed and is getting himself ready for the game. Where he was born doesn’t have any influence on things. He’s just focused on tomorrow’s match and nothing else. We haven’t spoken about the other issues”.

Comparison of the teams fielded in Fuenlabrada and away to Cultural
“They were both efficient performances. This season’s team was younger and has a lot of room for improvement. The side we put out against la Cultural was a very strong one and what we’ve done differently this year is to field a younger team that has greater room for improvement”.

Mariano
“I’m not surprised by how he’s performing. I’m really happy for him. He played a lot under me for Castilla and I know him very well. I know that our president and the president at Olympique Lyon have a good relationship and everyone is pleased with how it’s going. I’m not saddened at having let him leave. He needed to get more game time and he’s improving”.

Call Ups

The following players were called up for the match:

Goalkeepers: Casilla and Moha.
Defenders: Ramos, Varane, Nacho, Marcelo, Theo and Achraf.
Midfielders: Kroos, Modric, Casemiro, M. Llorente, Asensio, Isco and Ceballos.
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema and Lucas Vázquez.