Manchester City Pre-Season Schedule 2015: Fixtures, Dates, Live Stream, TV Info

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini is under pressure to win major silverware in the 2015-16 campaign and a healthy pre-season could be critical to seeing the club thrive in the coming year.

The Citizens began their tour of Australia with a 2-0 win over Adelaide United on Wednesday and will take on Melbourne City this Saturday hoping to maintain a victorious start to their pre-season.

That's before Pellegrini's men face off against Roma and Real Madrid in the Australian leg of this year's International Champions Cup, finishing their tour with a fixture against the Vietnam national team in Hanoi.

Read on for a look at Manchester City's 2015-16 pre-season schedule, provided by Simon Bajkowski of the Manchester Evening News, along with all available viewing information.

Competition	Date	Fixture	Time	TV	Live Stream
Friendly	Saturday, July 18	Melbourne City vs. Manchester City	8 a.m. BST/3 a.m. ET	Fox Sports (AUS)	Fox Sports stream (AUS)
International Champions Cup	Tuesday, July 21	Manchester City vs. Roma	11 a.m. BST/6 a.m. ET	Sky Sports 1 (UK), Fox Sports 1 (US)	Sky Go (UK), Fox Soccer 2GO (US)
International Champions Cup	Friday, July 24	Manchester City vs. Real Madrid	11 a.m. BST/6 a.m. ET	Sky Sports 1 (UK), Fox Sports 1 (US)	Sky Go (UK), Fox Soccer 2GO (US)
Friendly	Monday, July 27	Vietnam vs. Manchester City	2 p.m. BST/9 a.m. ET	TBA	TBA

New Kid On The Block

Manchester City have finally got their man after it was announced Raheem Sterling had joined from Liverpool this week for a fee of £49 million and will join up with the squad in Australia, per the Mirror's Liam Prenderville.

Forking out such an extravagant fee on the 20-year-old clearly puts Sterling in an elite bracket of young players, but Pellegrini is quoted by CNN as saying his new signing is of the highest quality in general:

The fixture against Melbourne City this Saturday may come too soon for Sterling to make his City debut, but those outings against Roma and Real Madrid later in the month seem more viable opportunities.

Speaking for the first time as a City player, Sterling commented on the star-studded cast that convinced him to make the switch, per Prenderville:

"

The world-class players that are here and a squad that are capable of winning things year in, year out. The more quality players that are around you, the more quality it brings out in you so I can't wait to get started and play alongside them.

They're top class. There's everything you need here and plenty more. There's everything you need to take you to the next level so there's no excuses!

"

Sky Sports illustrated just how prominent a signing record-breaker Sterling was for the Citizens, who now has more pressure on his shoulders than ever to impress:

The England international will find competition at the Etihad Stadium harder to overcome than that of his ex-Anfield peers, but this pre-season tour offers an early opportunity to make a lasting impression.

Summer of Opportunity

Sterling won't be the only Manchester City player with a burden on them to impress this summer, however, as a host of young names look to make their mark on a squad packed to the rafters with established talent.

Among those is new arrival Enes Unal, the Turkish prodigy who arrived from Bursaspor last week for a fee of £2 million. He was confirmed by Eren Sarigul of Turkish-Football.com as a pre-season squad inclusion.

Looking to more established academy names, Jose Angel Pozo and Marcos Lopes will also be seeking further involvement in Australia this summer, especially since the former made three Premier League appearances last term.

Jason Denayer hasn't made his first-team debut for the club yet, but a hugely promising 2014-15 season on loan with Celtic led to the centre-back signing a new five-year contract with City, per the club's official website.

Despite being his first season at the senior level, Denayer made an incredible 44 starts for Celtic across all competitions and earned his first caps for the Belgium national team.

The Citizens face a tough task in deciding which of these players will remain at the club and who will be farmed out in 2015-16, with their pre-season performances likely to influence that outcome.