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Arsenal and Atletico Madrid will meet in a pre-season friendly as part of the International Champions Cup on Thursday, just a few months after the two clubs battled it out in the UEFA Europa League semi-final.
There’s far less at stake this time around, with both sides focused on working out their tactics and bringing their form up to the right level ahead of the new season.
Premier Sports will broadcast the fixture in the UK, while American viewers will be able to tune in via the ESPN+ service and ESPNU. Live-stream links can be found at Premier Sports, ESPN+ and ESPN Player.
The match will be played at the Singapore National Stadium, with kick-off scheduled for 12:30 p.m. BST/7:30 a.m. ET.
The last time these two teams met, Atletico did just enough to edge Arsenal in the Europa League, winning 1-0 at home to take the overall tie 2-1. That result helped them to a title in Europe’s second-tier club competition, with the Gunners going home empty-handed.
Arsenal have since moved on from manager Arsene Wenger, introducing Unai Emery as the new man in charge. His debut against Boreham Wood went well, with a routine 8-0 triumph against the National League side:
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Emery will not have learned much from that outing, and it’s matches like the one against Atletico that will show him what he has in this squad. In all likelihood, he will again give plenty of minutes to some younger players, with several friendlies still to come.
Atletico’s squad is missing a ton of big names, with the likes of Antoine Griezmann, Diego Godin and others still recovering from the 2018 FIFA World Cup:
Atlético de Madrid @atletienglish
📋SQUAD LIST
@Simeone calls up 22 players for our tour in Singapore 🔴⚪🔴
Oblak
Adán
Dos Santos
Juanfran
Aitor
Solano
Montero
Tachi
Carlos Isaac
Rodrigo
Thomas
Vitolo
Carro
Óscar
Joaquín
Moya
Olabe
Mollejo
Correa
Gameiro
Vietto
Borja
#AúpaAtleti https://t.co/S2vq8hmLsi
Los Rojiblancos have travelled to Singapore with much less top-end talent than the Gunners, who have names such as Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to call on.
That should give Arsenal a good chance to snatch the win here, with their talented forwards going up against a defence lacking Godin, Uruguay team-mate Jose Maria Gimenez and Sime Vrsaljko, who played in the final with Croatia.
The result hardly matters here, though, as neither team will be playing a match of any consequence for some time still.
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