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Real Madrid have returned from their summer pre-season tour after playing seven games in Australia, China, Germany and Norway. Los Blancos have won three matches and have only suffered one defeat, against Bayern Munich in the Audi Cup.

Rafa Benitez era started in Melbourne, where Los Blancos were crowned winners of the International Champions Cup Australia. Los Merengues drew 0-0 against Roma in their first match, although the Italians won the subsequent penalty shoot-out. Yet, Madrid would later trash Manchester City 1-4 to lift the trophy.

Los Blancos then travelled to China, where they also won the International Champions Cup of that country. Rafa Benitez men beat Inter Milan 0-3 putting in a brilliant performance. After that, they drew 0-0 against AC Milan, but won the penalty shoot-out and brought the title home.

The team flew to Munich to play the Audi Cup without Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, who were suffering physical problems. However, Los Blancos managed to beat Tottenham Hotspur in the semi-finals, earning a 2-0 victory thanks to goals from James Rodriguez and Gareth Bale, who scored against his former team.

In the final, Los Merengues didn’t play their best game, and despite Keylor Navas superb performance, a late Robert Lewandowski goal gave Bayern Munich the title.

Real Madrid ended their tour in Oslo, with a friendly game against Valerenga. Rafa Benitez men were clearly superior but they lacked precision in their shots and earned their third scoreless draw of the pre-season.

Los Blancos will play their last pre-season match on August 18, when they will face Galatasaray in the Santiago Bernabeu Trophy before travelling to Gijon for the first official game of the season.

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Real Madrid are close to reaching a deal with Betis to bring young midfielder Dani Ceballos to the Santiago Bernabeu.

Los Blancos are negotiating a transfer with the Andalusian side and the two clubs are about to agree terms according to Spanish newspaper ABC.

Florentino Perez is not willing to pay the footballer’s 12-million-euro buy-out clause and has been working hard to reduce that price.

ABC has claimed that one of the strategies to cheapen the deal, has been including a loan move of another Los Blancos player. In this case, Madrid could have offered sending Marco Asensio to Betis in a one-year loan. The former Mallorca man is one of the biggest talents in Europe and Betis would be very happy to have him.

Ceballos would sign for Real Madrid in a permanent deal, but would stay one season loaned at Betis.

The player’s agent has revealed “the basic aspects of the contract have been agreed, only small details remain. The deal should be closed soon.”

Dani Ceballos is an 19-year-old midfielder who made a big impression last season for Betis. He has recently won the Under-19 European Championship with Spain and has caught the attention of many big clubs.

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Zinedine Zidane is one of the candidates to replace Marcelo Bielsa as Olympique de Marseille manager, according to French sports newspaper L’Equipe.

The Argentinian coach has quit the job after only one week of official competition, in which the Ligue 1 side lost to Caen 1-0 in the first game of the league.

Bielsa explained that he couldn’t “tolerate this situation of instability” believing the club had not met the agreements they had reached over his contract extension.

Assistant manager Franck Passi has taken on the job as a temporary measure, and Olympique de Marseille are desperately looking for a new manager.

Real Madrid Castilla manager Zinedine Zidane is one of the directors’ favourites, since the Los Blancos legend is originally from Marseille.

However, it seems highly unlikely that the French side are going to convince Zizou to join them with the Spanish season about to begin.

Zidane is determined to bring the Real Madrid reserve team back to the second division and has been working hard the whole summer to reach the start of the competition in great form.

Thus, Marseille will have to look elsewhere to find their new boss. Jurgen Klopp and Guus Hiddink are some of the other candidates for the job.

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Karim Benzema

Manchester City are preparing a 70-million-euro bid to sign Karim Benzema, Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport has claimed.

The Real Madrid striker has been linked with a move to Arsenal for the past few weeks, although Rafa Benitez has confirmed Los Blancos are not willing to sell the Frenchman.

Benzema is Arsene Wenger’s favourite number 9 and has also been tempted by former team-mate Mesut Ozil to join the Gunners. However, the striker seems happy at the Santiago Bernabeu and is not willing to move.

In fact, sources from the Spanish press have revealed that Benzema personally rejected Wenger’s offer in a recent phone call.

Manchester City hope to convince the 27-year-old by offering him more money than Arsenal. Yet, the player is already making eight million euros per season at the Santiago Bernabeu and seems pretty happy with it.

Florentino Perez is a big Karim Benzema admirer and he is not going to take any offer into consideration unless Benzema requests a move, something that is very unlikely to happen at the moment.

Benzema is the guaranteed starting number 9 in Rafa Benitez’s team, and only the arrival of another world-class striker would make him change his mind.

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Real Madrid defender Nacho Fernandez was satisfied despite Los Blancos failed to beat Norwegian side Valerenga in their last friendly of the pre-season.

“Once again we showed how solid we are defensively, from the goalkeeper all the way up to the front men. It wasn’t the result we were hoping for but we managed to keep a clean sheet and we’re happy about that, although we did fail to score,” the Spaniard said after the game.

The 25-year-old claimed they lacked precision in attack: “We were a very solid unit and defended really well and created a lot of goalscoring opportunities, but we were unable to put any of them away today. We’ve been picking up good results during the preseason. Not conceding is very important but now we need to dig in a bit deeper in order to score more goals.”

Nacho doesn’t seem to have many chances of playing this season, but he confessed he is going to fight for it: “I’ve been working hard to earn my place on the team ever since the new manager arrived. I’m no longer like the academy player I was back when I broke into the first team, now I want to fight for more and I’m trying my hardest to earn the trust of the manager.”

“I’ve known from the very beginning the competition I was up against, they could well be the three best centre backs in the world. They help me to improve a little bit each day. I’m delighted to be fighting with them for a place,” he added.

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Rafa Benitez claimed the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema was key for Real Madrid failing to beat Norwegian side Valerenga in Oslo.

“We’re missing players. Our top-scorers aren’t here. If you gave them twenty chances then these players would have scored, but the important thing is to create openings, that the team is solid and press in the opposition area as we did.”

The Spanish manager confessed he is pleased with how things are going despite their 0-0 draw: “We’re talking about preseason, friendlies and the team created enough to score. Our precision let us down. We’re not a hundred percent satisfied, but I’ll take away the positives, I’m pleased with how we pressured, the way we won the ball back and created chances.”

Local idol Martin Odegaard played a good game in his home country and Benitez seemed pleased with his performance: “He’s very talented and we have to support him. He’s played well and shown his quality even though this was just a friendly. If I were him, I’d be happy to be at Real Madrid and I’d work hard to improve every day.”

Asked about the future of Marco Asensio, who lead the team in the second half, Benitez was clear: “I said that this game would be the final one to make some decisions. We also still have the Bernabeu Trophy. We’ll sit down, talk and make a decision.”

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Real Madrid were unable to score a single goal for the fourth time in the pre-season, as they drew against humble Norwegian side Valerenga in Oslo.

Los Blancos didn’t play a good match in their final run-out before the start of La Liga. With Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo sidelined, Rafa Benitez men showed many offensive weaknesses.

It took Los Blancos just eight minutes to hit their stride, as Marcelo burst down the left before picking out James Rodriguez, who could only fire wide when caught off balance.

Los Merengues continued to probe away, but the home side themselves came close to opening the scoring when Melker Hallberg’s free kick ended narrowly wide of the target.

Gareth Bale had a major chance to open the score following a great play between Marcelo and Rodriguez out wide, but the Welshman missed his shot.

The visitors had another big chance before the break, as right-back Danilo broke into the box but saw a poor final touch let him down.

Most of the youngsters came in after the interval and Los Blancos continued to ask questions of their opponents, but they struggled to find a way through.

Bale and Denis Cheryshev had the best chances to score, but they missed their target. Valerenga keeper denied Borja Mayoral in the last minute to save his team from a loss.

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said club legend Thierry Henry is not quite correct in his claim signing Karim Benzema from Real Madrid would make the Gunners Premier League champions.

Benzema has been linked with the north London side, who hold the FA Cup and Community Shield, all summer long. But despite reports the club will bid 50 million euros for the striker, Wenger has so far denied any interest.

The French boss, about to embark on his 20th campaign with the Gunners, admits the team needs to score more goals if they are to win the league. But he told reporters the answer isn’t always to sign another player – in this case Benzema – but look for internal solutions.

“I respect Thierry Henry a lot for his football knowledge but it is not as mathematical as that. We have to develop our collective game and depend less on one guy who comes in and scores all the goals,” he stated.

He continued: “It is important but maybe we can share that. I think Olivier Giroud would not have been far from 20 if he played the whole of last season and Theo Walcott as well. I don’t see why a guy like Chamberlain should not have an ambition to score 10 goals, Sanchez can score goals too.

“Ozil has to fix himself a target of at least 10. For a guy who plays behind the striker you want more from him on the goalscoring so we can a little bit share that.”

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Real Madrid boss Rafa Benitez says he is optimistic about the season ahead after some good pre-season tests.

Los Blancos had a successful trip to Australia and China earlier this month before two testing fixtures in Munich in the Audi Cup. After another friendly in Oslo this weekend, Los Merengues end the pre-season preparations with the Bernabeu Trophy against Galatasaray.

Speaking to reporters, Benitez said he was pleased with how things had gone in recent weeks and was looking forward to the new campaign.

“I’m very optimistic. The team looks very good, the preseason has been very positive. We’ve played some strong teams who are already in competition. We’re 15 days from the beginning. We have this game tomorrow and the Santiago Bernabeu Trophy to prepare for our first Liga match. We still have time to work, to make adjustments, to manage the concepts that we have to manage,” he commented.

He also clarified reports on the injury crisis at the club, saying just Benzema and Pepe are sidelines. Some media outlets have suggested up to six first team stars may be out currently.

“Those numbers aren’t right, we don’t have six injuries, we’ve had just two. Benzema and Pepe. The others are just niggles. If you counted niggles as injuries, the list would be endless. In reality we have two injuries and the situation is positive, particularly the way the lads are working. The overall picture is positive. If a player doesn’t play a league match he might be injured, but if we let him rest for a friendly match it doesn’t mean he’s injured.”

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Real Madrid wonderkid Martin Odegaard will almost surely remain a Real Madrid Castilla player one more season, despite rumours he could move to a La Liga side on a one-year loan.

Playing for a first division side this year was one of the conditions Odegaard gave when he signed for Los Merengues. However, the club directors believes he still needs time to develop his game and want Zinedine Zidane to keep coaching him for a while.

Madrid-based sports newspaper As has claimed Real directors are trying to convince the 16-year-old Norwegian to keep playing for the reserve team in the Spanish third division.

They know Odegaard will have a crucial role at Castilla, with plenty of minutes of play, and they believe he won’t have that role guaranteed should he move to a bigger club.

Odegaard would keep training with the first squad many days, just like he did last season. And they are willing to guarantee he will play with Los Blancos in the Copa del Rey in order to convince both him and his father.

Odegaar is completing the pre-season with the first team, so Rafa Benitez can assess him. He will travel to his home country with Real next Sunday as Los Merengues are set to play a friendly game against Norwegian side Valerenga.

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