Villarreal visit Athlone

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La Liga giants Villarreal have announced that they will play Athlone Town on July 24th at Athlone Town Stadium in association with Platinum One.

The friendly fixture is the first on a pre-season tour that will see the Spanish side arrive in Ireland on July 21st where they will stay at Carton House in Maynooth. The midland friendly will come two days before a second fixture in Ireland, with opposition yet to be confirmed. The Spanish outfit will then head off to London to take on Spurs before heading to Poland to conclude their pre-season.

Organiser of the glamour tie by the Shannon, John Croghan told extratime the fixture on the 24th concludes a hectic week for Town. “We play Middlesbrough on the Monday, Port Vale on the Tuesday and Villarreal on the Saturday”.

Before that tie with the Spaniards the Division one outfit will play Wexford Youths in the league on the Friday making it four games in six days.

While Athlone will play their full strength side against Wexford and Villarreal they will rely on a handful of under-17 and under-20 players to start against the English opposition earlier in the week. Athlone have been averaging a couple of hundred for league games and while it’s going to be a busy few days on Shannon-side it will bring in some much needed revenue.

With a capacity of 2,200 Athlone Town Stadium will not be adding extra seating for any of the fixtures and instead will hope to fill the ground when the likes of Joan Capdevila, Marcus Senna, Jose Altidore and Giuseppi Rossi arrive on the bus from Maynooth.