Real Madrid

Real Madrid had their first of two sessions to be held this Friday in Real Madrid’s Football City as part of their pre-season preparation for the 2012/2013 season, which has already started. José Mourinho included the factory’s midfielder Rubén Belima in a session in which the Portuguese focused on fitness and finished with a reduced-pitch practice match.

Training started with the usual stretches and warm-up before doing different fitness and ball control exercises. The Madrid coach trained with the same 14 academy players as in Thursday's session, plus the midfielder Belima, also from the factory. First team players, Ángel Di María and Ricardo Carvalho trained in the gym and did not train, respectively.

At the end of the session, the coaching staff set up a reduced-pitch practice match to work on speed and ball movement. With the aim of the exercise being to progressively increase pace, the players were active in a very closely fought contest. Eventually, the team without bibs won 2-1 with two good goals from Fabinho and Nacho. Higuaín scored the goal for his team with a great shot. The team will return to training this afternoon from 17:30.

Real Madrid training range available on the official online store.