Dean Smith Aston Villa
Aston Villa and Leicester City participated in a joint training exercise at the King Power Stadium and at Villa Park in a bid to ramp up fitness efforts. The matches – more a training session than a true friendly – were held at the two stadiums, with Dean Smith and Brendan Rodgers watching on. Both the clubs are just 33 miles apart from each other in the West Midlands and this gave them an ideal opportunity to get their players ready for the upcoming fixtures. The premier league rules says that the teams can not travel more than 90 minutes to play a friendly match.
Aston Villa said “Following confirmation of next week’s provisional restart date for the 2019/20 season, Villa have now started engaging in 11 v 11 training exercises alongside other clubs to help aid their preparations, They will help Villa fine-tune their fitness levels and matchday plans, while also ensuring Smith’s side become accustomed to the nature of behind-closed-doors matches without supporters in stadiums, in line with health and safety requirements. Having faced the Foxes in two sessions on Wednesday, Villa will continue to step up their preparations in readiness for the final 10 matches of the campaign.”
Villa will face Sheffield United on June 17 whereas Leicester City will start their campaign against Watford three days later.
