Sand, sweat and soccer aplenty for Bulls in desert.

Red Bull Salzburg take off for Dubai training camp: 16 to 27 January 2008.
Three friendly matches scheduled v FC Zürich, Litex Lovech and CSKA Moscow

On Wednesday 16 January 2008 the Bulls are to be flown from Munich to their winter training camp in Dubai. It will be the second year in a row that Giovanni Trapattoni’s side have made the Emirates the base for their post-winter T-Mobile Bundesliga warm-up.

A packed training schedule has been designed to exact the maximum from the players under the desert heat. Three friendly matches have been penned in with world-famous clubs.

Like last year, FC Zürich are waiting to test the Bulls: in Jebel Ali on 19 January at 5:00 pm local time (2:00 pm CET). The ten-time Swiss Champions and six-time Cup Winners are another club to have been so impressed with the results of their Dubai training camp twelve months ago that they are returning in 2008.

The Zurich side, currently placed second behind FC Basel in the Swiss league, are old Salzburg adversaries. The Austrian Champions got the better when the sides met in Champions League qualification in 2006. A 1-2 loss in Switzerland was followed with a 2-0 home win that sent the Bulls into the third qualifying round; a 2-0 win for Salzburg in last year’s Dubai friendly (Dudic and Janocko) cemented the Austrians’ upper hand in the Alpine rivalry.

The remaining pair of friendly matches in Dubai:

20 January 2008 – Red Bull Salzburg v Litex Lovech (BUL)
23 January 2008 – Red Bull Salzburg v CSKA Moscow

Litex Lovech sit seventh in the Bulgarian championship. The club will be looking to try out a number of new signings made during their winter break, such as new Brazilian duo Doubala and Miranda. Lovech are making their way to the desert on 15 January.

CSKA Moscow are one of Russia’s biggest clubs, and have a superb international squad at their disposal thanks to the financial assistance of Roman Abramovich (of Chelsea fame). CSKA took part in the group stages of this year’s Champions League and missed out on qualifying for the latter stages by a single point in a group containing Inter, Fenerbahce and PSV.