Brighton to play Atletico Madrid in pre-season friendly

By Simon Ormiston

Image: Brighton & Hove Albion are the third team manager Chris Hughton has taken into the Premier League

Brighton & Hove Albion are set to kick-off their first season in the Premier League by playing Spanish giants Atletico Madrid in a pre-season fixture on August 6.

Brighton, who won automatic promotion to the Premier League after finishing second in the Sky Bet Championship, have agreed terms with Diego Simeone's side and are working on finalising the contract before putting tickets on sale.

Atletico have reached the Champions League final twice in the last four seasons and are packed with some of the biggest names in world football such as French international and Manchester United target Antoine Greizmann, Fernando Torres and Diego Godin.

Image: Fernando Torres is back at his home-town club after spells with Liverpool, Chelsea and AC Milan.

Brighton chief executive Paul Barber has said they have given the Spanish side 24-hour access to the training ground to show-off their first class facilities and build relationships and revealed they have already had enquiries from fans for tickets.

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Brighton players celebrated promotion to the Premier League in April by crowd-surfing on a train back to the city centre.

Atletico will be the third Spanish side to visit the Amex in recent years. Villarreal beat Brighton 3-1 in a pre-season match in 2013 and the Seagulls beat Sevilla in 2015 thanks to a penalty from Tomer Hemed.

Ticket prices and on sale dates for the fixture with Atletico will be announced as soon as the match contract has been finalised.

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