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Town Complete Friendly Programme at Union Berlin - Ipswich Town News

Town complete their pre-season programme when they face Bundesliga side Union Berlin at their Stadion An der Alten Försterel on Saturday afternoon (KO 3.30pm local time/2.30pm BST).

The Blues go into the game, their only public overseas friendly this summer, following victories over Le Havre, 1-0, and Rayo Vallecano, 3-0, at Portman Road.

Manager Gary O’Neil started what looks to be essentially his first-choice XI in those games and is set to take a similar approach tomorrow with Sasa Lukic set to make his first appearance in a Town shirt having signed too late to play against the La Liga side.

Asked following the victory over Vallecano whether the team which faces Union tomorrow will be the one which lines up against Sunderland at Portman Road on the opening day a week later, O’Neil said: "Broadly. I don’t know the XI that’s going to start against Sunderland. Even today we played to win, so today I picked a team that I thought would win.

"There might be some new arrivals by then, there might be some things that I see that I feel like need changing, but today was picked off the basis of trying to win the game. So that next week will be the same, not the same team, but the same idea, trying to win.”

Town are close to announcing two new arrivals, Strasbourg pair Julio Enciso and Abdoul Ouattara, but neither will be involved tomorrow.

Keeper Christian Walton and winger Jaden Philogene both travelled with the squad to Germany for the training camp having missed all the previous pre-season matches.


Neither George Hirst nor Alex Palmer made the trip to Germany with outward transfer moves ongoing, while Azor Matusiwa and Jack Taylor are continuing their recoveries following their summer surgery and aren’t expected to be ready for a game until the Sunderland match at best.

Union Berlin finished 11th in the Bundesliga last term. During pre-season they beat lower league sides Rathenow and SV Grun-Weiss Lubben 12-2 and 16-0 respectively, before a 1-1 draw at fourth-tier Chemnitz.

They were then defeated 2-0 by 2. Bundesliga Carl Zeiss Jena, before a 1-1 draw with Swiss second-tier side Winterthur and then a 2-1 defeat to Aarau from the same league.

They were then beaten by 2. Bundesliga Dynamo Dresden by the same scoreline, before their first home-based friendly, a 2-2 draw with Serie A Cagliari.

Last Sunday, they beat Cypriots Aris Limassol 3-2 at Stadion An der Alten Försterel.

The game is being streamed live on TownTV in the UK.


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