Norwich City and Toulouse face contrasting tasks as they prepare to meet in Austria on Tuesday evening.

The Canaries are hoping to continue their impressive pre-season after a disastrous 2022-23 campaign, while the Violets will aim to rediscover the form that took them to the French Cup last term.

The kick-off time for the game has been brought forward to 3pm (UK) due to severe weather warnings in the area, but City's time in Austria wasn't designed solely to complete this fixture.

Instead it's been a time of advanced pre-season work and team bonding, with new arrivals singing initiation songs and players staying in cabins with each other. It's a part of the world David Wagner knows well and he believes it could help him extract as much as possible from his team.

Included in that team could be star man Gabriel Sara, who stated via the club's official channels that he "thinks [he's] ready to play some minutes" in the fixture. He underwent appendix surgery and has yet to play a single minute this summer, but will be a key player in Wagner's side if he remains fit.

Max Aarons and Milot Rashica have now joined up with the group and could also feature for the first time during pre-season, although exits are possible for both. Aarons has been touted with West Ham and Fulham, while Rashica is the subject of ongoing negotiations with former loan club Galatasaray.

In any case Toulouse will provide a stern test, if lacking confidence after three winless fixtures.

First they lost 3-1 to French rivals Montpellier, before drawing 0-0 with FC Andorra and losing 5-2 to Werder Bremen. As the Norfolk side's 3-0 win over Marseille last summer displayed, however, little can be read into pre-season results.

That's why Wagner and his club's supporters will be looking out for signs of improvement outside of just the scoreline this evening, with faces to return and new ones very near on the horizon.

With the Championship kick-off coming into view, preparations are close to completion in this squad, and Norwich will be keen to reflect that in their final away game of the summer.