Granada vs Real Madrid. Spanish La Liga.
Estadio Los CarmenesAttendance17,060.
Saturday 6 February 2016 21:14, UK
Gareth Bale is struggling for fitness for Real Madrid's La Liga clash away to relegation battlers Granada on Sunday evening.
Bale has scored 13 goals this season but the winger is still overcoming a calf injury he sustained against Sporting Gijon last month.
A statement on Real Madrid's official club website said Bale 'continued to recover' during the club's training session on Thursday, along with Pepe, who has a foot injury.
Bale scored a hat-trick in Zinedine Zidane's first game in charge against Deportivo La Coruna a month ago and his continued absence would be a blow to the Frenchman's hopes of catching Barcelona, who are currently four points ahead in the table and also have a game in hand.
"We have preferred to wait a little because he is better but not completely recovered," said Zidane in his pre-match press conference.
"It was best to for him to go bit-by-bit."
Madrid, however, have enjoyed an upturn in form of late, hammering Espanyol 6-0 last weekend to take their goalscoring tally to an impressive 32 goals in their last seven games.
"As long as there is a mathematical possibility of winning we will be in the mix,'' goalkeeper Kiko Casilla told the club's official website.
"Real Madrid have to battle until the end. We know that it is difficult but we are going to fight because we have a good dynamic with the new manager and I believe that we are going to battle until the end.''
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 35th hat-trick against Espanyol last weekend and turned 31 on Friday.
The Portuguese superstar has now netted 344 goals in 328 games for Madrid and he only needs one against Granada to break the 20 mark in the league this season.
Granada have the second worst defensive record in the division but they were far from blown away against their decorated opponents in the reverse fixture in September, when only Karim Benzema's second-half strike separated the teams, although they were beaten 9-1 at the Bernabeu last April.
They are currently 19th in the table, having won only once in their last six matches.
Granada are expected to have newly-signed Watford players Abdoulaye Doucoure and 18-year-old Adalberto Penaranda as part of their squad, who both were immediately loaned out to the struggling side.
