Norwich City's pre-season reaches a climax when they face Bundesliga side St Pauli this afternoon.

The German second-tier champions arrive at Carrow Road a week before City's Championship kick-off at Oxford United, after a crunch training camp in Austria.

Canaries head coach Johannes Hoff Thorup will look to use the game as a dress rehearsal for the league campaign, and almost all of his key players will be around to aid that mission.

It's hoped that summer signing Jose Cordoba could start despite missing Tuesday's draw with Hoffenheim due to muscle tightness, with Adam Idah available after sitting it out for disciplinary reasons.

Both Josh Sargent and Angus Gunn came through their first outings of the summer unscathed, and Christian Fassnacht was back in team training after recovering from a knock.

The individual quality Thorup has to choose from makes his side slight favourites, but the Boys in Brown won't make it easy. They secured an impressive promotion last season under now-Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler, and have been working hard on adapting to life under his successor Alexander Blessin.

They'll also have inside knowledge of the hosts from former Norwich winger Danel Sinani, who made the move to Germany after his contract with the club expired in 2023.

His team-mate Carlo Boukhalfa says they'll do everything they can to be victorious in NR1, as they look to build on their recent success.

"We definitely aim to go flat out," he said. "You need every game to be really fit in time for the start of the season. We also want to use the game to carry on working on our ideas.

"Every coach has his own philosophy and wants to put his own ideas into practice. I think we're well on the way to doing that, which is why I'm looking forward to the new season. It's been intensive, that's for sure.

"We have some special characters in the team you don't find everywhere you go, as you saw last year. We wouldn't have had so much success without this spirit and sense of togetherness."