Zinedine Zidane expects Cristiano Ronaldo to be fit for Champions League final

Luis Suarez gave Barcelona the lead in the 10th minute, connecting a cross from Sergi Roberto from the right at the Camp Nou Stadium.

‘It does not matter if Barca are already the champions, ‘ Casemiro said to Movistar. “We have to look for incentives and that is important”.

The joy at Camp Nou was short-lived.

Just before half-time Roberto appeared to lash out at Marcelo, and referee Alejandro Hernandez showed no hesitation in the presenting a straight red to the Spaniard. We don’t know when he’s going to return to training with the group, but these are positive signs.

So which players impressed most for Barca? In the end, the debate was left open.

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane is 150 percent sure that Cristiano Ronaldo will be fit to face Liverpool in the Champions League final on May 26.

“We’ll see tomorrow after the tests, what we have to do is see the damage done to the ankle”.

The Frenchman went on to praise Mohamed Salah for his contributions this season, saying: “I don’t know if Mohamed Salah will be in contention for the Ballon d’Or, but he’s had a great season”. Ronaldo played on until halftime, when he was replaced by Marco Asensio. “Both sides always want to win a game like this”. Liverpool will watch with interest. Nonetheless, a red card changed the course of the game dramatically, and the second half of the game was torture for Barcelona. The flick went toward the net and found Ronaldo, who tapped it past Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

But Barca are four games away from finishing their first league season unbeaten, while Real may be hoping to maintain momentum ahead of their showpiece clash against Liverpool.

Bale had risked getting sent off for raking his studs against Samuel Umtiti’s leg but escaped without a booking on that occasion.

VAR will add accuracy, but at what cost? .

“It was clearly a hard match to referee”.

“The match was complicated with the cards”, he said. The game was amok with an electric spirit, where both the sides were at their competitive best which led to a lot of challenges and had the referee on edge for the entire 90+4 minutes.

“Luckily we don’t have VAR yet, or we’d still be playing”, joked Valverde in his post-match press conference.