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Real Madrid has announced its preseason schedule today and it looks to be a pretty lengthy one in terms of mileage to be covered. Instead of one preseason tournament like we saw last summer, the club will be taking part in three shorter ones across three continents.
The first stop will be in Melbourne, Australia where they'll face Serie A runner-up Roma on July 18 at the enormous Melbourne Cricket Ground. Six days later they'll face Premier League runner-up Manchester City on July 24
at the same location.
Following the City match will be a turnaround to China where they'll face Inter Milan, who finished eighth in Serie A, on July 27 at the Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou. AC Milan, 10th place in Serie A, awaits them on July 30 at Shanghai Stadium.
The team will then head back to Europe to face Tottenham Hotspur on August 4 at the Allianz Arena, home of Bayern Munich, in a four team tournament. The other leg will see Bayern face AC Milan and the Real Madrid game on August 5 will depend on the result of the first two games.
The summer schedule should provide a solid tuneup against relatively good competition for Rafa Benitez and his new squad, though the long flight times could be seen as an annoyance.