Real Madrid v Athletic Bilbao preview: Los Blancos aim to make up ground on Barcelona

Real Madrid will hope to put pressure on La Liga leaders Barcelona when they host Athletic Bilbao at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday afternoon.

Madrid can close to within one point of Barcelona with victory over Bilbao as the champions do not play their match against Celta Vigo until Sunday evening.

Real will be without injured trio Pepe, Marcelo and Gareth Bale, with the Wales international sidelined for almost a month by a calf problem and Madrid head coach Zinedine Zidane admitted the forward is making slower progress than the club had hoped.

"He is feeling better every day but I am not going to say that he will be back training with us next week," he said in his pre-match press conference.

"He needs time and we need to be patient because we need Gareth to be 100 per cent fit.

"If he is feeling pain then it is to be expected that he might suffer a setback. Gareth is such an important player for us that we are not going to take any risks."

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Meanwhile, Zidane was slightly more optimistic regarding the fitness of left-back Marcelo, who dislocated his right shoulder in last weekend's 2-1 win away to Granada.

The Brazil international will not play against Athletic, but Zidane said: "We will see how it evolves. He did a bit of running today (Friday) and that is a good thing for us.

"We will take it one day at a time. He still has a bit of pain in his shoulder and it all depends on how he feels."

Real, who are unbeaten in eight matches, come into the weekend in third place in La Liga, four points behind leaders Barcelona having played a game more.