AS Roma coach Rudi Garcia believes that the caliber of opposition his players will face in the International Champions Cup Australia will stand his team in good stead for this season’s Champions League campaign.

The Giallorossi will take on Read Madrid on Saturday evening in Melbourne in front of over 90,000 fans before facing Manchester City three days later at the same venue. The games, though tough, are exactly what Roma need this summer, he says.

“Playing Real Madrid and Manchester City will be good preparation ahead of the Champions League,” Garcia told a packed press conference at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday evening. “On Saturday night both teams will be a little short of match fitness as it’s still early in pre-season but it should still be a good game.

“The group of players we have here are fine – on and off the pitch. The group is made of players who know each other very well – they know when it is time to work hard and when it is time to have fun. They’ve had to adapt to a time zone change but back in Rome it’s very hot so the conditions here are good for us.

“We had a similar experience last summer in terms of playing big teams when we faced Real Madrid and Manchester United in America. We’ve got some more games against quality opposition when we return to Europe too and those games will also help us.”

“Regarding the Champions League, the draw is so important. We had the most difficult group in the competition last season and despite that, we were still only 90 minutes away from qualifying for the last 16. Hopefully we can do better this season as we gained valuable experience last year and learned a lot from the experience.”

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