Ipswich Town conclude their Premier League preparations with a friendly against French club OGC Nice at Portman Road this lunchtime (12.30pm). Stuart Watson previews the action.
FINAL FRIENDLY
This is it then, the final warm-up game before Liverpool visit Portman Road next Saturday (it still feels odd saying that).
It’s been 14 weeks since the joyous scenes that greeted Ipswich Town securing promotion back to the Premier League following a 22-year absence.
Town played a couple of behind-closed-doors games at the start of pre-season. In one of them, Nathan Broadhead, last season’s joint top scorer, picked up a hamstring injury.
After that came a week-long training camp in Austria that ended with a 1-0 win and encouraging performance against Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk.
A 2-1 home defeat to German second-tier side Fortuna Dusseldorf followed. Kieran McKenna admitted his team ‘didn’t play our best’ and it was later revealed that striker George Hirst had suffered a knee injury.
The Blues then had another few days away, this time in Germany and Austria. With numbers limited, a late decision was made to field an U21 side against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Town’s first team subsequently won 1-0 against Hoffenheim, dominating the majority of the game against a German outfit that will play in the Europa League this season.
It’s been a pre-season campaign of ups and downs so far. Ipswich will want to end it on a positive note this afternoon.
THE OPPOSITION
Nice – full name Olympique Gymnaste Club de Nice – are nicknamed Les Aiglons (The Eaglets).
The French south coast club finished fifth in Ligue 1 last season to secure a place in the Europa League, but there’s been a lot of change there this summer.
Italian manager Francesco Farioli left to become Ajax boss. Nice appointed Lens manager Franck Haise as their new man.
Midfielder Khéphren Thuram, the son of France legend Lilian and younger brother of Inter forward Marcus, has been sold to Juventus for €20m, while highly-rated centre-back Jean-Clair Todibo is said to be on the verge of a €32m move to West Ham.
Nice’s top scorer last season was Nigerian international striker Terem Moffi. He ruptured his ACL in training last month and will be out for a significant period.
Their captain, former Bayern Munich defender Dante, has signed a new contract. The Brazilian turns 41 in October.
Nice’s pre-season so far has consisted of three 2-2 draws and a 3-2 win at Italian club Lecce last weekend.
SHORT OF NUMBERS
Aside from goalkeeper Christian Walton’s late set-back, Ipswich went into last season with a pretty clean bill of health. This year they’ve not been so fortunate.
As mentioned, key attacking duo Broadhead and Hirst are sidelined. Broadhead won’t be back until October at the earliest, while we’re still waiting to hear the severity of Hirst’s knee issue.
Harry Clarke and Ali Al-Hamadi underwent surgeries to sort long-troublesome Achilles and adductor issues respectively when last season finished. Neither have featured in pre-season so far. Cameron Humphreys is also currently injured.
That leaves Kieran McKenna with just 17 senior outfielders to call upon today. Several Under-21 players are likely to be in the squad again to make up numbers.
The starting line-up last time out was: Muric; Johnson, Woolfenden, Greaves, Davis; Morsy, Taylor; Hutchinson, Chaplin, Harness; Delap.
Who is selected today will provide a pretty good indication of what the team will be for Liverpool. Will it be Jacob Greaves or Cameron Burgess in defence? Massimo Luongo or Jack Taylor in midfield? Will Wes Burns come in for Marcus Harness, with Omari Hutchinson moving over to the left? Let’s see.
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