Eibar vs. Real Madrid: Team News, Preview, Live Stream, TV Info

Real Madrid will have the opportunity to reclaim a two-point lead at the head of La Liga's standings on Saturday when they play host to SD Eibar, who have already earned a result from Los Blancos this season.

Manager Zinedine Zidane's side were held to a 1-1 draw when they came up against Eibar at the Santiago Bernabeu in October, but the incentive of a return to the top may coax a superior result in Week 26.

That said, Los Merengues are hoping to recover from a lacklustre performance against Las Palmas on Wednesday, when they found themselves 3-1 down at home before rallying to snatch a share of the spoils late on.

Eibar, on the other hand, have lost just once in their last seven games and are in free-scoring form of late, having failed to net in only one of those matches.

Read on for all the latest team news leading up to Saturday's duel, complete with all the essential viewing information and a match preview.

Date: Saturday, March 4

Time: 3:15 p.m. GMT/10:15 a.m. ET

Venue: Estadio Municipal de Ipurua, Eibar, Spain

Live Stream: fuboTV (U.S.)

TV Info: beIN Sports 3 (U.S.)

Eibar	Real Madrid
Real Sociedad 2-2 Eibar	Real Madrid 3-3 Las Palmas
Eibar 3-0 Malaga	Villarreal 2-3 Real Madrid
Sevilla 2-0 Eibar	Valencia 2-1 Real Madrid
Eibar 4-0 Granada	Real Madrid 2-0 Espanyol
Valencia 0-4 Eibar	Real Madrid 3-1 Napoli

Team News

The biggest absences for Zidane in Week 26 will be Gareth Bale and Alvaro Morata, who both miss out through suspension, with the former having received a red card in Wednesday's draw with Las Palmas.

Morata will be missing for only one match after he picked up his fifth yellow card of the season in that fixture, although Bale told Real Madrid TV he didn't deserve to be dismissed in the same game (h/t AS):

"

I don't believe that it was deserving of a red card. I was shown the yellow for the foul, I was then pushed and I just pushed him back. I want to apologise to the team and the fans. I hope to learn from my mistake.

"

Both teams will have centre-backs missing for the clash. AS reported the hamstring injury Raphael Varane suffered against Valencia on February 22 will keep him sidelined for "four to six weeks." Meanwhile, the Spanish daily criticised the second yellow card that saw Eibar's Florian Lejeune dismissed against Real Sociedad on Tuesday:

Goalkeeper Asier Riesgo, left-back David Junca and attacking duo Kike and Nano are also sidelined for Eibar, per Transfermarkt, having suffered injuries at the beginning of the year.

Fortunately for Saturday's hosts, right-back Ander Capa is ready to return after serving his recent suspension, while Anaitz Arbilla could move to left-back and Alejandro Galvez replaces Lejeune in central defence.

Preview

Despite a Cristiano Ronaldo-inspired comeback against Las Palmas in the dying minutes of Wednesday's outing, Real Madrid head to Ipurua knowing all is not right in Zidane's dressing room at present.

It wasn't long ago the Madrid giants looked like running away with the league title, but Zidane acknowledged the issues plaguing his side and said a point wasn't good enough on Wednesday, per ESPN FC's Dermot Corrigan:

"

We cannot be happy with this draw. But at the same time we cannot go crazy. We must analyse things, think about what we can do to change this, and we will change it. We made an enormous effort to come back to 3-3 from 3-1. We have character, we can do good things, but there are moments when we must be cleverer and more focused.

"

Eibar will be overjoyed to see Real struggle at such an opportune moment, however, and a tally of 18 goals scored in their last seven games across all competitions can give them reason to believe they can steal a result on Saturday.

Manager Jose Luis Mendilibar's men have kept three clean sheets in that same span of time as well, and Yahoo's Andrew Gaffney lauded the team's quality in the recent 2-2 draw at Real Sociedad:

A win over Real would be enough to push the underdog contenders level on points with sixth-placed Villarreal and make European qualification that much closer, which should be enough motivation to inspire just about any side at their level.

Real have been out of sorts lately, meaning there's no reason to think an Eibar side led by the promising attacking assets of Pedro Leon can't spring a surprise of their own at Ipurua.