Cristiano Ronaldo will want to make an impression amid an alleged not-exactly-seeing-eye-to-eye situation with Rafa Benitez, while Raheem Sterling will look to put his goalscoring boots on again as Real Madrid play Manchester City in the International Champions Cup 2015 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.
Benitez saw his first match in the Real Madrid hotseat end in a penalty shootout loss to Roma, and having seen his side struggle for goals in that game, the Spaniard will hope for an improvement against City, who, ironically, beat Roma on penalties in their last game.
"I want to make it very clear that this is a period of preparation for the season ahead," Benitez was quoted by the club's official website. "We'll be playing with a team that is good enough to win but the main idea is getting ourselves ready for the real matches ahead.
"I'll be naming a good team but I can't guarantee whether the starting lineup will include six, seven or eight players who will be starting in the first La Liga fixture. This is our preseason."
They don't make them better than the MCG for spectacles, and watching the likes of Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Sterling, Yaya Toure and David Silva put on a show should be 90 minutes of football to savour, even with a dodgy pitch.
Sterling showed the first signs of being able to justify that big £49million pricetag with a goal inside three minutes against Roma, and while it is way, way too early to say how good a signing he will prove to be, another encouraging performance will be welcomed by Manuel Pellegrini, who was quite impressed with the former Liverpool man's debut for Manchester City.
"For a striker it's important to score, especially as he scored so early," Pellegrini said of Sterling, who scored in two minutes and 17 seconds. "He just played 45 minutes as he's only worked a few days.
"He demonstrates why he's here, not only as player now but I think he will improve a lot in the future, playing with Yaya, Silva and [Sergio] Aguero.
"We bought him because he has a big future -- he has the speed that we don't have so we have a different way of playing. He's the player we need in our team."
While Sterling, who was booed by the crowd in the match against Roma, will grab some of the spotlight, most of the attention, as it always is, will be on Ronaldo, whose relationship with Benitez has not been the best so far.
The Real Madrid manager, however, is confident of getting the best out of the prolific forward, who sleeps, eats and breathes goals.
"He has already proved that [he's the best] and he's proving it for me now," Benitez said. "I'd love if every player was as eager to compete and win. I'm very pleased with him.
"I speak to him a lot, as I do with all the players. There's nothing strange about the training sessions and the same is true for the conversations. Being competitive is a strength not a weakness.
"I'm always trying to make the players in my squad stronger and by working with him you appreciate all the titles he has won and why he is the best in the world."
Where to Watch Live
Manchester City vs Real Madrid is scheduled to begin at 8 pm local time (3.30 pm IST, 11 am BST, 12 pm CET, 6 am ET). The ICC game will be shown live in India on Star Sports 2, while the online live streaming options are on Hotstar and Starsports online.
Audience in the UK can watch the International Champions Cup match live on Sky Sports1, with the live stream option on Sky Go.
Viewers in Spain can watch Real Madrid vs Manchester City live on Canal+, while audience in Australia can watch the game live on GEM.
Real Madrid vs Manchester City will be shown live in the US on Fox Sports and ESPN Deportes (in Spanish), while the match can also be live streamed on FoxSoccer2Go and Watch ESPN.
