Real Madrid will play a preseason friendly against Schalke 04 next Sunday, August 16, at 5:00 p.m. The match will be held at the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, a stadium that this summer turns 25 years since its inauguration. Precisely For that anniversary, the German club wanted to organize a gala match against a top-level rival, and the white team accepted the challenge.
It is not the first time that both teams have crossed paths in that scenario. Real Madrid has already visited the Veltins-Arena on two occasions for official Champions League competitions: in February 2014, in the first leg of the round of 16, with a white victory 1-6, and a year later, in 2015, also in the first leg of that same round, with a 0-2 victory. Now, more than a decade later, both clubs will meet again, although this time in a friendly context.
For José Mourinho, this match will be one of the last tests of the preseason before the official start of LaLiga. The striking thing about the date is that this friendly comes just one day after the official start of LaLiga, which will begin on Saturday, August 15 with Alavés-Getafe as the opening match.
Real Madrid, however, will enjoy an extra week of margin compared to the rest of the teams, since the Spanish competition granted them a postponement due to the large number of players from the white team who participated in the recently played World Cup.
Valverde’s goal against Leganés (1-0) in the second match of Mourinho’s Real Madrid
Agenda
After the games against Alcorcón (1-0) and Leganés (4-1)the roadmap until mid-August that Jose Mourinho’s men have left goes through these dates:
August 1, 6:00 p.m. – Real Madrid vs. Fiorentina (Wörthersee Stadion, Klagenfurt, Austria) first match open to the public
August 8, 7:00 p.m. – Ferencváros vs. Real Madrid (Groupama Aréna, Budapest, Hungary)
August 12, 9:00 p.m. – Deportivo de La Coruña vs. Real Madrid (Riazor Stadium) — Teresa Herrera Trophy.
After these duels, the friendly on August 16 against Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen would arrive. The league debut in LaLiga would be on August 22 against Espanyolafter the postponement of the first day due to the World Cup.