Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 7y

Pepe, Fabio Coentrao miss training ahead of Champions League final

Real Madrid announced an almost clean bill of health as they finished their final training session in the Spanish capital ahead of Saturday's Champions League final against Juventus.

Gareth Bale and Dani Carvajal both played a full part in Thursday morning's session and will be available for selection in Cardiff -- although Bale said earlier this week that he would not yet be 100 percent fit following troublesome ankle and calf injuries.

The only two players who missed out on Thursday were defenders Fabio Coentrao and Pepe, neither of whom have featured for Zinedine Zidane's team recently, and who both could be set to leave the club this summer.

"Time is ticking down before the Champions League final," said a club statement. "At Real Madrid City, the team carried out the last training session before travelling to Cardiff on Friday.

"The Whites, who are looking to win la Duodecima [12th European Cup] against Juventus (Saturday, 8:45pm CEST), completed a session which saw ball work take centre stage. Zidane involved the Castilla player Enzo in a session heavily based on pressing, possession, sprints and shots on goal, before the team focussed on crossing and shooting. Pepe and Coentrao trained using the indoor facilities."

The squad are scheduled to fly from Madrid to Cardiff on Friday morning, with their last pregame training session taking place at the Millennium Stadium at 7:45 p.m. local time that evening.

Bale is most likely to be named on the bench by Zidane on Saturday evening, with midfield playmaker Isco to start again in a 4-4-2 formation.

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