21st July 2006
Pre-season friendlies are rarely memorable fixtures but for two modest English clubs, July 21st is a date that has gone down in their histories; friendlies against Real Madrid.
In 1973, Plymouth Argyle beat Santos in a friendly at Home Park, with the Brazilians including World famous, Pele, in their line-up. On Friday 21st July 2006, the mighty Real Madrid played the Pilgrims in a friendly fixture. The match was played in Austria and came about in very unusual circumstances. Plymouth were in Austria preparing for the new season. Real Madrid were in Austria for the same reason, but their new manager Fabio Capello, who had only been in the job for a couple of weeks, had been disappointed to find that the hotel in his favourite resort in the country had been booked......by Plymouth Argyle. So a deal was reached with Plymouth kindly moving to a different hotel, with the Spaniards taking their place, paying the English club's expenses and most importantly, agreeing to play Plymouth in Austria in a friendly.
The match wasn't played before a full Nou Camp but a more modest 4,000, at the less well-known Franz Fekete Stadium in Kapfenberg. The friendly saw future England boss Capello record a victory in his first match as manager of Real Madrid but it was by the narrowest of margins with the Spanish giants scoring the only goal of the match in the 75th minute from the penalty spot after Luc Nalis had handled in the area.
Seven years later, on Sunday July 21st 2013, another new Real Madrid manager, Carlo Ancelotti, visited another south-coast English side - Bournemouth - in his first match in charge of the mighty Spaniards. Needless to say, interest in the match was sky-high, with fans queuing over night to buy tickets, which cost up to £60 each - amazing for a pre-season friendly! Understandably, the visitors beat the Championship side 6-0 but, a 11,772 "holiday mood" crowd saw Bournemouth play Real Madrid! What a treat!
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