Two of the most famous football teams in the world go head to head in a pre-season friendly this week as Manchester United and Barcelona compete in Sweden, with Paddy Power announcing free bets and reporting plenty of money coming in for Alex Ferguson’s men.
Both teams will be challenging for major honours over the next few months of course and the fact that their last two meetings have been in the Champions League final highlights how high profile this friendly is.
Each team will of course be looking to gain match fitness and get ready for the new season, something this match will assist in. However, there is more to this one than that. Neither team will want to lose.
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In a way, how this match goes could set down a marker for the rest of the season as well as boost the confidence of the winning team. There is of course only so much that you can read into a pre-season friendly, but this will be a competitive affair.
Looking at how these two teams are doing in pre-season so far, Manchester United have been solid but not spectacular. In four friendly matches, they have only conceded once but they have also only found the net on three occasions.
Barcelona on the other hand have been a bit more open at the back, but in form in terms of scoring goals. With just two games gone in their pre-season schedule, they have scored four and conceded three.
There has been another friendly to note from Barcelona – an 8-0 thrashing of Raja Club Athletic which highlighted the attacking threat they possess. It was weak opposition, but also a demonstration of what they can do under new manager Tito Vilanova.
Overall, this is a friendly match with some incredibly talented and famous players going up against each other. With Pep Guardiloa no longer in charge of Barcelona, this sees the rivalry of Sir Alex Ferguson and Vilanova begin.
Unlike he did against Guardiola, Ferguson will be hoping to come out on top. Starting on Wednesday evening when this fascinating friendly encounter gets underway.