Paulo Gazzaniga echoed Mauricio Pochettino’s thoughts on our Champions League-style pre-season.
The manager likened our summer fixtures to Europe’s elite competition with International Champions Cup (ICC) matches against Juventus and Manchester United in Asia followed by Real Madrid (tonight, 5pm UK) and either Bayern Munich or Fenerbache (tomorrow, KO TBC) in the Audi Cup and finally Inter in the ICC at home on Sunday (3pm).
Goalkeeper Paulo lined-up against Juve in Singapore and United in Shanghai after Hugo Lloris was laid low with tonsillitis. Hugo is back in the squad for the Audi Cup in Munich and Paulo said the players can’t wait for this next challenge.
“It’s Real Madrid, one of the biggest clubs in the world,” he said. “It’s a good challenge for us to push ourselves and an amazing game to play.
“This (pre-season) is amazing, all big clubs, we are as well and it’s nice to play against this type of team because we could also face them in the Champions League.
“The most important thing is us though, we’re working hard, training a lot. The atmosphere is amazing. We’re enjoying it and we have such a good group, sticking together. This is the way.”