Ronaldo among stars rested

Cristiano Ronaldo is among the stars to be rested for Real Madrid for their trip to Cultural Leonesa in the Copa Del Rey on Wednesday.

The match will mark Madrid's return to the competition for the first time since last season's fiasco against Cadiz, where they were eliminated due to playing the non-eligible Denis Cherysev.

Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Marcelo and Keylor Navas are among the other stars not to make the trip for Zinedine Zidane's side, as he is expected to field a side full of fringe players.

Goalkeeper Kiko Casilla and full-back Nacho Fernandez are expected to start, while Fabio Coentrao is back in the first-team squad for the first time in 539 days, although he has had a loan spell at Monaco since.

Both Marca and AS report that Los Blancos will line-up as follows: Casilla; Danilo, Pepe, Raphael Varane, Nacho, Kovacic, James Rodriguez, Asensio; Vazquez, Morata, Mariano.

Leonesa’s leading goalscorer, Alejandro Gallar described his team as "like a poor copy of Real Madrid. We play offensively, leave space at the back, but know how to hurt other teams."

Leonesa lead Segunda Group B group 1 ahead of Racing Santander, with eight wins and two draws from their ten matches.

Tags Cristiano Ronaldo
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