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Reuters: The return of talisman Cristiano Ronaldo to a misfiring Real Madrid cannot come soon enough, team mates Marcos Llorente and Lucas Vazquez said ahead of the prolific Portuguese’s expected return to action against APOEL Nicosia on Wednesday.
Ronaldo has missed Real’s last four games due to a suspension for pushing a referee in the Spanish Super Cup against Barcelona.
He still has one domestic game to serve of the ban, but he is free to face Cypriot side APOEL as Real begin their defence of the Champions League.
The long ban has prevented Ronaldo from making a single competitive start this season and his comeback arrives at a time when Real need him most.
Zinedine Zidane’s side have suffered disappointing draws against Valencia and Levante that have left them four points off the pace behind Liga leaders Barcelona and Real Sociedad in the table.
“It’s clear that he’s very important to this team and has the ability to score incredible goals and that would have served us well today,” said Real midfielder Llorente after Saturday’s surprise 1-1 draw against promoted Levante.
Real have lacked firepower in Ronaldo’s absence after selling striker Alvaro Morata to Chelsea. They will be without forward Karim Benzema for around a month after the Frenchman injured his hamstring against Levante.
Gareth Bale was particularly wasteful on Saturday after coming on for Benzema against Levante, spurning three clear chances to score.
Ronaldo hit top form at the business end of last season to fire Real to a Liga and Champions League double and was allowed to report back later than his team mates for pre-season training.
Real barely missed him as they outclassed Manchester United to win the European Super Cup, although he came on as a late substitute in the 2-1 win.
They also comfortably saw off Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup, winning 5-1 on aggregate despite only having Ronaldo at their service for 24 out of 180 minutes.
The four-time world player of the year’s value to the team, however, has been highlighted by their struggles to put their chances away in the league.
“Another player who can play up front is Cristiano, we’ve been without him for four games and it’s far too long,” added Vazquez, who scored Real’s only goal against Levante.
Barcelona (Reuters): An insatiable Lionel Messi hit a hat-trick as Barcelona hammered Espanyol 5-0 in a local derby on Saturday to make it three wins from three and take full advantage after Liga champions Real Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Levante.
The Argentine was handed a slice of luck with his first goal, which should have been ruled out for offside, and then showed no mercy to Espanyol, moving on to five goals in three league games as record signing Ousmane Dembele came off the bench in the second half to make his Barca debut.
Late goals from Gerard Pique and Luis Suarez completed the thrashing, with Dembele grabbing an assist, laying on the pass for the Uruguayan’s goal.
Real, who were still missing talisman Cristiano Ronaldo through suspension, dropped points at home for the second game running as a misfiring Gareth Bale squandered a series of chances and Marcelo was sent off late on.
Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid were held to a goalless draw away to Valencia as they missed the presence of suspended striker Antoine Griezmann, while Sevilla warmed up for their Champions League trip to Liverpool by beating Eibar 3-0.
Reuters: Manchester United’s perfect start to the season ended with a 2-2 draw at Stoke City, whose battling performance in a see-saw game denied the leaders a fourth successive Premier League victory.
Stoke set out to stretch United with long balls wide and took the lead on 43 minutes when Darren Fletcher found Mame Diouf, whose whipped cross was bundled over the line by Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. It was the Cameroonian’s first goal for Stoke and the first United had conceded this season.
Jose Mourinho’s men probably spared themselves a halftime dressing down over their poor defending by bouncing back two minutes later with a bizarre equaliser that cannoned into the net off the back of Marcus Rashford’s head from Paul Pogba’s forceful header.
United have shown their resilience by scoring consistently after the break and took the lead on 57 minutes with Romelu Lukaku’s fourth league goal of the season.
But Stoke would not be beaten and, after Jese had been denied by David de Gea’s instinctive save, Choupo-Moting scored his second with a far-post header from a corner.
United are now joint leaders with Manchester City on 10 points.
