Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed that Gareth Bale will make his long awaited debut for the club against Villarreal on Saturday night.
There had been some doubt as to whether the Welshman would feature having only played half an hour of competitive football so far this season in his country’s 0-3 defeat to Serbia. However, Ancelotti insisted he will get some playing time in the clash between two of the four sides still with a 100 per cent record in the league this season.
Gareth to play on right side
The Italian also ended speculation about where Bale will fit into the Real side by saying he sees him playing from the right side of the attack.
“He will almost certainly play on the right,” Ancelotti said. There had been suggestions in the Spanish press that Bale could even make his debut at left-back after Marcelo, Fabio Coentrao and Alvaro Arbeloa were all injured whilst on international duty.
Ancelotti confirmed though that he will instead opt for Nacho at left-back and that both Cristiano Ronaldo and Isco were fit after recovering from the knocks they picked up on their travels with their national teams.
“We have not had luck with the national teams. We have recovered Isco, but Arbeloa, Marcelo and Coentrao are injured.
“Cristiano is fine. He has recovered and will play in Villarreal.
Martino sticks to rotation policy
Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino has continued his rotation policy by leaving Pedro Rodriguez out of his squad to face Sevilla on Saturday.
Martino has already left out Lionel Messi, Neymar and Xavi Hernandez during his short spell in charge and says he will continue to distribute the workload around his squad with the demands of the Champions League also set to begin next week.
“The absence of Pedro is just to give him a rest because he has played a lot of minutes,” he said.
“We must take into account minutes played with the national team. He played a very intense match against Chile, he played very well, but he played the 90 minutes.
Martino has however been able to name Sergio Busquets in his 20-man squad after he recovered from the thigh injury. Xavi and Alexis Sanchez also return after being rested for Barca’s last league.