Cristiano Ronaldo is human and has the right to miss – Alvaro Morata

Los Merengues faced a stern test in Athletic Club, and while their play was not spectacular, they will need to continue to win these type of matches if they are to win their first league title in five years. Subs – Lucas 5, Morata 7. If they avoid such mistakes this time, though, they should win nearly no matter what happens – but Athletic will do whatever it takes to figure out what “almost no matter what” doesn’t cover to find an advantage of their own.

Real Madrid and Athletic BIlbao kicked off a rainy night at the Bernabeu with an open, end to end match.

“We’ve got 25 players and Zidane’s job is hard to choose who’ll play”. They rode their luck at times, with Inaki Williams in particular passing up a couple of golden opportunities, but Morata’s stoppage time goal was enough to give them three points. Bilbao have also been quite inconsistent defensively, so Madrid will be looking to attack them and put the defense under constant pressure.

Ronaldo thrived in Ancelotti’s 4-3-3 system, scoring 51 goals in 47 appearances in their Decima-winning campaign, and he publicly called for the Italian to stay in charge shortly before he was sacked and replaced by Rafael Benitez. Isco has been in fine form as well, and will start the game in the absence of Modric.

More bad news for Athletic arrived in shape of injuries – Yeray and Aritz Aduriz were both injured in the meeting against Genk, leaving Valverde with much less depth and options with his squad.

Ronaldo should have restored Madrid’s lead in the closing stages of the first half, but his finishing let him down twice. He didn’t score today but we have a game in four days’ time and I’m sure he’ll have chances to score then.

The Yellow Submarine, unbeaten coming into this match, looked set to run aground when a world-class goal from Kevin-Prince Boateng gave the Canary Islanders a half-time advantage.

And the Spanish global ensured Real didn t drop points at home for a third consecutive La Liga game as he bundled Gareth Bale s low cross home at the near post.

Arguably the best chance of the second half went begging for Madrid and Benzema as the striker met Isco’s cross but could only aim for Iraizoz, having headed from a standing position.

Despite needing to rely on another late show from Morata, Real coach Zinedine Zidane said his side had played well against Athletic.