Rafa Benítez made a media appearance in the Shanghai Stadium press room a day before the game against AC Milan (Thursday, 8pm local time, 2pm CEST). The Real Madrid manager praised his squad: "I have an amazing team and I'm very happy with it. My aim is to get great performances out of a great group. I'm focused on helping the players improve every day. When we arrive in Madrid we will make all necessary evaluations."

"We are in a preseason where we have seen the team play well and show 100% commitment. We will assess possible exits when we are in Madrid. They are all good footballers and have given it their all."

Benzema and Modric

"They trained with the team today and might play tomorrow. Right now we haven't decided on the team yet because we've just finished training. We have confidence in all the players and lots of different options. The line-up is not as important as those who go take to the pitch playing to the level worthy of Real Madrid".

"We are looking forward to the new season, to playing well and winning titles. Real Madrid aims to play well and win every competition each year. To do that we will need Cristiano Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema, James…".

AC Milan

"It's a club I like a lot and this change shows their ambition and will to improve".

Mourinho's Words

"I'm the Real Madrid coach. I like football, I understand football and for this reason I only speak about football. We are here to prepare for the game against AC Milan and a tour that is going very well. I want to talk about the present and the future, which I hope will be here at Madrid for many years".