Juventus excited about playing here

Just over a week after the Singapore national team take on arch-rivals Malaysia in the first international football match at the new National Stadium on Aug 8, Serie A champions Juventus will be in town for a glamour friendly on Aug 16.

The Italian giants will play an exhibition match against a Singapore Selection side made up of the Lions and foreign stars from the S.League at the new 55,000-capacity stadium at the Singapore Sports Hub.

Juventus broke the record for the most number of points in a season in Serie A with 102 en route to their third successive domestic title this year.

World stars like Andrea Pirlo, Gianluigi Buffon and Paul Pogba will make the trip to the Lion City after their duties for Italy and France at the World Cup in Brazil, which kicks off on June 12.

The team will also feature top Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini and Argentinian striker Carlos Tevez.

In a statement released by World Sport Group - part of the Singapore Sports Hub consortium - yesterday, Francesco Calvo, commercial director of Juventus, said: "Juventus are thrilled to be heading to Singapore, a place we have heard many great things about! What a wonderful occasion it will be for us to compete at such a new venue and against what we expect will be a young and exciting Singapore team."

Juventus, nicknamed the "Grand Old Lady" of Italian football, have won the Scudetto a record 30 times and were crowned kings of Europe in 1985 and 1996.

The club also boast nine Coppa Italia (Italian Cup), and five Supercoppa Italiana (Italian Super Cup).

Friendly

Before they take to the field in Singapore, Juventus will play a friendly in Australia on Aug 10 against an A-League All Stars team that will include club legend Alessandro Del Piero.

The exhibition game with Juventus is part of what will be a grand opening for the new National Stadium and FAS spokesman, Gerard Wong, said: "This is also a great opportunity for our Singapore Selection team... to play the current Serie A champions and their world-class players.

"We always relish the challenge of playing against some of the best players in the world and our team will be training hard to put in a good display in front of an anticipated huge crowd."

This article was published on May 20 in The New Paper.

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