Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain are two of the most well known teams in the world and they will be playing in an exhibition match in Doha in Qatar and the match has some big stars playing in Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo, but Gareth Bale will be missing in action again and the match will be the first warm-up for the clubs heading into the 2014 calendar and the Champions League later in February and the match at Khalifa International Stadium is sold out of all its tickets.
Real Madrid comes in after winning four of their last six matches over various leagues and they drew the other matches and while this won't count for any leagues, it is a good way for players to get back on track and back into the groove of things after the holiday schedule. Real Madrid plays in the knockout round of the Champions League against Schalke 04 in February and that will be a very anticipated matchup and while they will be without Bale on Thursday, the team should have plenty of five power with Andres Iniesta and Ronaldo. Paris Saint-Germain played in a friendly last year in Doha and the club comes in having won two of their last three matches, drawing in the Coupe de La Ligue and that came after a win against Benfica in their final Champions League match. The club next will play against Bayer Leverkusen in the round of 16 at BayArena and that could be one of the best matchups of the knockout round in the UCL.
Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic are both very consistent scorers and the stars finished one-two in scoring over the year, with the Real Madrid star scoring 69 goals in 59 games, while the Swede had 47 goals in one less match. Bale will be out for the match against PSG, but he has been training with the team and he plans on being ready for the club's next league match against Celta Vigo and that comes over a month before their UCL match in February and Bale hopes to remain healthy until that match. The stadium there holds 50,000 and the game had a high demand after it was announced and has two of the most well-known players in the world.
Bale has been in and out of the lineup since coming over from Tottenham earlier last year and while he will be missing from the pitch on Thursday against PSG, he is recovering from a calf injury and the La Liga break has been a good chance for him to get fully healthy. Bale initially hurt the calf in a practice session and ended up missing the match against Valencia before the holiday break and while the team won that match, hopes were high for Bale getting back into the lineup quickly. The match has two very successful teams going up against each other and Real Madrid is hoping to get the year off to a positive start
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