MARRAKECH – The end-of-year exhibition match between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter is just over a day away now. This prestigious friendly kicks off at 20:00 CET tomorrow evening, offering respective coaches Roberto Mancini and Laurent Blanc an opportunity to get their preparations for 2015 off the ground with a useful run-out against experienced opposition.
The French coach and former Inter defender spoke enthusiastically both about the location and about facing the Nerazzurri when he looked ahead to tomorrow night's meeting at the Grand Stade.
He said: "I'm really happy to be able to meet some Moroccan friends. Marrakech is a city I know well because I've had the opportunity to explore it before.
"It's an ideal location for us – not just because of the mild weather but also for the modern facilities it offers. For example, the Grand Stade is a new stadium with a superb playing surface.
"Everything about this trip is positive: the people here are very friendly and they love their football. I know they can't wait to see us play live. We're here to play a top-quality game against Inter. It's a match-up between two prestigious clubs and we're looking forward to testing ourselves against them."
The former World Cup winner also had a few words to say about the club where he plied his trade for two seasons between 1999 and 2001: "Inter are a side with lots of youngsters and I know the club well. It's going to be an interesting game.
"We'll be looking to play good football of course but it's mainly important for our winter training programme. We want to get ourselves back up to full match fitness by playing against first-rate Italian opposition because we have a Coupe de France match on 5 January."
