The expected line up for the Emirates Cup was leaked recently but it has now been confirmed by the press in Lyon – and the leak was mostly wrong.
This year’s tournament will feature Lyon, Villarreal and Wolfsburg, seeing Nicklas Bendtner return to the club for the first time since he left last summer. It had been rumoured that Juve would make an appearance along with Atletico Madrid and Wolfsburg but it seems that the report, which came out of Germany, was well wide of the mark.
Lyon previously took part in the tournament in 2010 but it will be the first appearance for both Villarreal and Wolfsburg. It wouldn’t be beyond the realms to imagine that the invite to Villarreal came as part of the deal which saw Gabriel join the club in January.
The eighth edition of the pre-season tournament will take place on the weekend of 25th and 26th July.
[Obviously there is the chance that this could also be incorrect but, unlike the report which came out of Germany, this one has come from the city of a club said to be involved, contained the dates of the tournament which were missing from the German report and generally seemed more trustworthy and substantial than the first report which came from Twitter.]