September 07, 2019 / By mobanmarket
Los Blancos begin the hard work of putting last season behind them with a difficult opening friendly against FCB in the USA
Real Madrid’s pre-season campaign begins on Saturday with an ICC encounter against Bayern Munich in Houston’s NRG Stadium.
Zinedine Zidane’s side are aiming to put a wretched 2018-19 campaign behind them and build towards success in the coming season, and have added a raft of players to their ranks over the course of the summer, including Eden Hazard, Luka Jovic and Ferland Mendy.
Bundesliga champions Bayern, meanwhile, are seeking an improvement after losing out late on to Arsenal on Wednesday, going down 2-1 after Robert Lewandowski drew them back on terms midway through the second half.
| Game | Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid |
| Date | Saturday, July 20 |
| Time | 1:00am BST / 8:00pm ET |
In the US, the match can be watched live on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, and will be streamed on ESPN Deportes+.
| US TV channel | Online stream |
|---|---|
| ESPN2 / ESPN Deportes | ESPN Deportes+ |
In the UK, the match will be shown on Premier Sports 1 and livestreamed on Premier Sports HD.
| UK TV channel | Online stream |
|---|---|
| Premier Sports 1 | Premier Sports HD |
| Position | Bayern Munich squad |
|---|---|
| Goalkeepers | Neuer, Ulreich |
| Defenders | Kimmich, Pavard, Sule, Boateng, Alaba |
| Midfielders | Thiago, Goretzka, Martinez, Sanches, Tolisso, Davies |
| Forwards | Arp, Gnabry, Coman, Lewandowski, Muller |
Lucas Hernandez is the only player unavailable for Bayern as he continues his return from knee surgery but Renato Sanches is a doubt.
Alphonso Davies will hope for some minutes after he was an unused replacement against Arsenal; he cut short his time off following the Gold Cup to join up with the squad for pre-season.
| Position | Real Madrid squad |
|---|---|
| Goalkeepers | Courtois, Navas, Lunin, Altube |
| Defenders | Carvajal, Ramos, Varane, Nacho, Marcelo, Odriozola, Mendy, De la Fuente, Javi Hernandez |
| Midfielders | Kroos, Modric, Isco, Seoane, Fidalgo |
| Forwards | Mariano, Benzema, Bale, Lucas V., Asensio, Brahim, Vinicius Jr., Hazard, Jovic, Rodrygo, Kubo |
Brahim Diaz is out for a couple of weeks due to a hamstring injury while James Rodriguez – a Bayern player in each of the last two seasons – and Jesus Vallejo are still on holiday after recent international commitments.
Luka Jovic, Eden Hazard and Ferland Mendy could all debut.
Real Madrid are 5/4 favourites at Bet365 . Bayern Munich can be backed at 2/1, while the draw is priced at 5/2.
Click here to see all of bet 365’s offers for the game, including goalscoring markets, correct score predictions and more.
After a disappointing third-place finish in La Liga last season, Real Madrid go into the new campaign hungry for success, with their opening friendly match coming against Bayern Munich on Saturday.
While there are a host of new faces in Los Blancos’ squad, most notable among them Eden Hazard, one man who will not be there at the weekend to oversee the game is head coach Zinedine Zidane, who has been given personal leave following the death of his brother, Farid.
David Bettoni will take charge of Real in the meantime, with the squad hopeful of picking up some momentum after losing three of their last four matches last term.
“The most important thing in these first games is to get good momentum and feelings,” Toni Kroos said. “We’ll be playing the next few games in order to be ready to fight for all titles, as we always do.
“We will be a bit tired for sure because we’re training so hard. In fact, I’m still tired after today’s training session!”
Madrid have spent time in Montreal for their initial pre-season training camp but now face a busy schedule with three matches over six days, with Arsenal to come on Tuesday and Atletico Madrid to follow next Friday.
It is on Bayern, of course, that their focus is on first and foremost.
The German side suffered a 2-1 loss against Arsenal in their opening pre-season clash, but while they were defeated in that clash, they are remaining optimistic and bullish about the good work they are doing.
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“When you lose, it doesn’t feel super cool, but we did many things really well,” Thomas Muller said. “The focus for us was not on having our season highlight in this game. It was like a very good training session. Kingsley Coman had two or three super plays.”
Similarly, head coach Niko Kovac was relatively satisfied with what was on display from his side, particularly going forward.
“I liked a lot what I saw on offence. It was an entertaining game with a great deal of dynamism and speed,” he said.
For both sides, the result is not all important, yet a win over such a great rival would be very welcome indeed.
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