Norwich's impressive on-loan defender Ritchie de Laet insists there is no such thing as a friendly after City's highly-competitive 1-1 outing against Real Zaragoza.

The young Manchester United prospect relished a physical encounter against the Spaniards in midweek and topped off another encouraging pre-season display with his first goal for the Canaries.

'It's a friendly but you still want to win the game. You are not a footballer to lose,' he said. 'If the ball there is to be tackled we will and the other team did it as well – it's a game of football, friendly or not. We've got one more test against a foreign team in Parma so we just need to get through that 90 minutes and then we are a week away from Wigan.

'It's a step up, foreign opposition – another style, they try to keep the ball like teams in the Premier League do so it was good for us not to have the ball perhaps for five or ten minutes, being able to run around the pitch and get our fitness up.'

De Laet reacted quickest to Grant Holt's knockdown to open the scoring before Braulio Nobrega rifled home in the closing seconds of an eventful first half.

'I like to go forward, get in the box and get my head on things, so it came off with a goal,' he said. 'We don't get there a lot as defenders, so if we do get there we try to do something about it and today it came off.'

De Laet has featured in all four of City's games since returning from the club's pre-season German tour. Paul Lambert has paired the young defender with a number of different partners at the heart of the Canaries' backline.

'The boss sets up the team and it seems to have clicked for me,' he said. 'I get along with Zak (Whitbread), Elliott (Ward) who is injured now and Barney (Leon Barnett). its going well, but whoever the boss picks has to go and do a job. Its about getting to know the lads and how they like to play.'