Mourinho and Real face to face this night

Tonight Real Madrid will be playing Chelsea in the International Champions Cup. It was supposed to be a pre-season friendly, but Mourinho wanted to inject more into it than that. His reunion with Real Madrid, just two months after taking his leave of the manager's bench, already came replete with storylines, but, after the remarks made by Mourinho in the past few days, an element of revenge has crept in.

There have been barbs directed at both Cristiano Ronaldo and at the club. Ronaldo wishes to respond, but will do so on the pitch.

Ancelotti will be going on with his job of trying out his players with a view to the opening league game on 18th August against Betis. One uncertainty is who will be in goal. Casillas has played his first game under Ancelotti, although compared to Diego López he is short of match practice. Carlo will be wanting to use most of his first-choice men, and so it is unlikely that the starting line-up will be all that different from the side that beat Everton 2-1.

The fascination of Chelsea, meanwhile, who got to this final by beating AC Milan, lies with Essien and Torres. Essien played for Real Madrid last season, and Torres was with Atlético de Madrid for seven years, and was one of the most-feared players in Madrid derby matches. Mourinho was hoping to be able to play Lampard, recovering from an Achilles tendon injury, but in the end he is not going to risk him, thinking of other, more important, games to come.


/Marca/