Bristol City have confirmed their final friendly fixture ahead of the 2025/26 Championship campaign
12:00, 10 Jul 2025
Bristol City have confirmed that they will be ending their pre-season schedule with a friendly against Spanish club Real Valladolid at Ashton Gate, as preparations continue for the 2025/26 campaign.
The Robins will welcome the Segunda Division side to BS3 on Saturday, August 2, for what will be their final friendly fixture before the Championship season gets underway a week later when Gerhard Struber's Reds travel to Bramall Lane to face Sheffield United.
Real Valladolid were relegated from La Liga last season as they finished bottom of the Spanish first division, 25 points adrift of Sevilla and safety. Across the whole of the campaign, La Pucela only won four league matches, with only one of those victories coming in 2025.
Up until May, Brazilian legend Ronaldo Nazario was the majority shareholder of City's final pre-season opponents, having purchased a 51 per cent stake in the club back in 2019. However, the former Real Madrid and Barcelona forward agreed to sell his share to a North American Investment group in the final weeks of last season.
This will be the second time in two seasons the Robins have welcomed overseas opposition to BS3 for a pre-season friendly. Last term, Willem II made the trip to the West Country and played out a 0-0 draw in front of a reasonable crowd the week prior to City's 1-1 draw with Hull City on the opening day of the league campaign.
Struber's side are currently in Portugal for a warm-weather training camp, having returned to the Robins High Performance Centre for pre-season testing almost two weeks ago. The Reds are due to arrive back in the UK at the end of the week but will round off the trip with their first friendly of the summer against local opposition.
After another week of training at Failand, City will travel to the south coast to take on Premier League opposition in the form of Bournemouth on Saturday, July 19. The meeting with the Cherries will be played behind closed doors with no fans in attendance.
Three days later, on Tuesday, July 22, Newport County will face the Robins at the HPC. City were also set to play MK Dons at the Stadium MK later that evening, but that fixture has since been cancelled after the two sides were drawn against one another in the first round of the Carabao Cup.
Struber's side then round off a busy week of fixtures with a trip up the M5 to face Cheltenham Town on Friday, July 25, before taking on Plymouth Argyle at Home Park a day later on Saturday, July 26. With supporters able to attend both fixtures, this will be the majority of fans' first chance to see their new head coach in the Robins' dugout.
Then, the Austrian will take to the Ashton Gate touchline for the first time as City boss a week later against Real Valladolid. The hope will be that the run of six games will allow Struber and his side to hit the ground running against the Blades on the opening weekend of the season.
Bristol City's pre-season schedule in full
- AFC Bournemouth (A) - Saturday, July 18, behind closed doors
- Newport County (H) - Tuesday, July 22, HPC, 12:00pm KO, behind closed doors
- Cheltenham Town (A) - Friday, July 25, The EV Charging points Stadium, 7:45pm KO
- Plymouth Argyle (A) - Saturday, July 26, Home Park, 3:00pm KO
- Real Valladolid (H) - Saturday, August 2, Ashton Gate, 3:00pm KO