Manchester United and Barcelona go head to head in a pre-season football friendly on Wednesday. The game will be played in Gothenburg, Sweden, and is an early chance for these two sides, who are amongst the best in Europe, to see how they fair against each other, especially as Barcelona have a new manager in Tito Vilanova.
Vilanova is confident Barcelona will reap the rewards of a tough preseason schedule once the 2012-13 campaign gets into full swing.
The Catalan powerhouse locked horns with Paris Saint-Germain at the weekend, while it will face Premier League giant Manchester United next on Wednesday, and the coach believes his men will only benefit from being handed such early tests.
"I prefer a tough preseason, so that we quickly get up to the level we need to be at," Vilanova stated at a press conference.
"What we wanted from the game against Paris Saint-Germain was that the players regained match fitness. I gave them time on the pitch according to how much time they had got in training."
"Messi played the whole game because he felt good. Our aim had been to give him as long as possible and he felt good and wanted to finish the game."
Get your tickets for La Liga 2012/2013 or English Premier League tickets securely on 1st4 Football Tickets .com
Following the African and Asian legs of their summer tour, Manchester United's squad is significantly stronger with numerous players returning to the squad after international duty this summer.
Youngsters such as Davide Petrucci, Ryan Tunnicliffe and a number of others have returned home as Nani, Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck are back following their involvement in Euro 2012, but the biggest boost to Sir Alex Ferguson is the fitness of his captain Nemanja Vidic after missing eight months of action.
Patrice Evra missed out on the draw with Valerenga on Sunday with his wife expecting a baby, but the club confirmed he would be back with the squad for the clash with Barcelona.
With some of the most talented players in world football likely to run out on Wednesday evening, this is not likely to be your standard pre-season friendly, expect goals and entertainment.
About 1st4FootballTickets.com: Thousands of football tickets are on sale on Europe's biggest football ticketing website: We have Premier League team tickets such as Arsenal tickets, Liverpool ticket bookings and tickets for the Spurs. We also have football cup tickets such as Capital One Cup Tickets and tickets for the UEFA Champions League.