Stoke City boss Mark Hughes was pleased with their 1-1 draw against Freiburg.
Mame Diouf's well-taken first goal for the club, six minutes before half-time, brought the scores level and Stoke looked the more likely to score again.
Hughes said: "I thought there were a lot of positives we could take from that.
"We conceded a goal from a set play which can happen in pre-season because we don't feed the guys the amount of information about the opposition that we would for a league game.
"It's good that we got into the game and good for Mame, who I thought played really well today.
"We made a lot of changes but I thought they ran out of ideas somewhat and we had the better chances.
"There are obviously details we can work on and need to work on but I think we are ready now to start the real stuff. We've had enough friendlies.
"We've got a week of work ahead and then we'll be ready for Villa."
