Real Madrid’s famed ‘BBC’ (Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo) trained for the first time since April to give the tottering giants a much-needed boost and Cristiano Ronaldo stole the show in training with an incredible rabona pass to teammate Gareth Bale.
The rabona is an extremely difficult trick-shot to pull of while stationary but the reigning Best FIFA Men’s Player unsurprisingly executes it with extreme nonchalance with a moving ball.
Bale, Real’s record signing, has been struggling with muscular injuries of late and returned to full training this week and joined Ronaldo and Karim Benzema for a training session that had several international stars missing.
Ronaldo has been rested from international duty by Portugal as A Seleccao have qualified for next year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Fernando Santos’ men face Saudi Arabia (November 10) and United States of America (November 14) and will have to make do without their captain and all-time top scorer, Ronaldo, for the two games.
France have qualified as well, but Karim Benzema’s international career has effectively been over since a ‘sex-tape’ controversy with international teammate Mathieu Valbuena erupted and the 29-year-old has not played for Les Blues for over two years now. The 2016 European runners-up face Wales (November 10) and Germany (November 14) in two friendlies during the ongoing international break.
Wales failed to qualify for next year’s showpiece event as they finished their qualifying campaign in third place and while Chris Coleman’s side are playing friendlies against France (November 10) and Panama (November 14).
Real, who are La Liga and UEFA Champions League holders, haven’t made the best of starts to their domestic campaign as the trail leaders and arch-rivals Barcelona by a hefty total of eight points after 11 rounds.
They have stuttered in Europe as well, with a 3-1 loss to Premier League side to Tottenham Hotspur derailing their hopes of topping Group H. While Los Blancos are almost assured of progression to the knockouts, they trail the Lilywhites by two points and will have to hope the English side slip up in their final two games as they seek to avoid a big-name in the pre-quarterfinals.
With the ‘BBC’ fit and firing, Real remain one of the deadliest sides in Europe and manager Zinedine Zidane will have an interesting conundrum when the international break concludes as less-established but in-form players like Marco Asensio and Isco have been banging on the door for a while now.