Cristiano Ronaldo rested, ready for Barca

Aug 10, 2017 - 12:46 PM Cristiano Ronaldo is rested and ready to take on Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup.

Ronaldo enjoyed a longer vacation than his Real Madrid teammates to fully recover from Portugal's participation in the Confederations Cup in June.

He missed his club's preseason tour, including a friendly against Barcelona in Miami that the Catalan club won 3-2.

Ronaldo returned to training at the start of August, but he only played the final 10 minutes of Madrid's 2-1 win over former club Manchester United in the European Super Cup on Tuesday.

That means Ronaldo should be back in Madrid's starting lineup on Sunday, when it visits Barcelona's Camp Nou in the opening leg of the Spanish Super Cup.

The second leg will be at the Santiago Bernabeu on August 16.

Madrid now takes aim at a second trophy to kick off the new campaign before starting its defence of the Spanish league crown the following weekend.

"What we want to do is to keep this winning streak alive," Zidane said after Madrid beat United.

"This is going to be a difficult year because already on Sunday we have a complicated match."

Madrid will be without midfielder Luka Modric, who will serve a one-game suspension dating back to the 2014 Spanish Super Cup.

Barcelona, which is in the Super Cup as the reigning Copa del Rey winner, will play its second match since the stunning departure of Neymar.

Barcelona played its first match without Neymar on Monday in a friendly against Brazilian side Chapecoense.

That match, however, was more about paying homage to the victims of the plane crash that decimated Chapecoense last year than warming up for Madrid.

Source: AAP