Manchester City’s pre-season tour of the United States got off to a rocky start after a dramatic 4-3 loss to Celtic.
City travelled to Chapel Hill in North Carolina to begin their summer tour, with Scottish champions Celtic at the helm. The Premier League title favourites have had a busy summer.
Boss Pep Guardiola saw Savinho arrive from Troyes, while young trio Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Tommy Doyle and Sergio Gomez left on permanent deals. Guardiola intensifies his team’s preparation on the other side of the Atlantic.
But things did not start well for the champions, with an appearance controlled by Erling Haaland and the incorporation of Jack Grealish defeated by Celtic. Even before the attack began, the drama was there.
An hour before kick-off, fans were asked to evacuate the stadium following a warning for bad weather. Interestingly, despite reports of storms, it didn’t rain, fans were invited back and the match started only a few minutes late, it was also late when some fans invaded the box before they passed the security checks.
Things got worse for City enthusiasts when Brendan Rodgers’ side took the lead through Nicolas-Gerrit Kuhn. Oscar Bobb levelled things up for City when Haaland faked a shot from Nico O’Reilly to allow the Norwegian to bring the ball home.
But the game tipped back in Celtic’s favour when Kalvin Phillips pushed himself too hard to fill the pitch and allow Kuhn to score his second goal of the night. Phillips was hooked at half-time and City pushed him to leave the Etihad in the summer.
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The midfielder was still on the pitch when Celtic took a two-goal lead, with Kyogo Furuhashi scoring before the break. The intense, urgent and incisive play of the Scots caused City’s first disorders, with Guardiola making adjustments at half-time.
But a sign of the weakness of his current team is that three of them (Callum Doyle, Yan Couto and Issa Kabore) will leave this summer. Although the trio were on the verge of leaving the club, they helped City get back into the game.
Bobb proved to be defending, the youngster sent a clever cross to Haaland to force a header. City then equalised through Maximo Perrone before Luis Palma scored the final goal of a thrilling match with 23 minutes remaining to give Celtic the win.
Even after the match, City remained plagued with drama, with Guardiola admitting that first-choice goalkeeper Ederson could leave this summer. But the coach was satisfied with the performance of his team.
“I saw a lot of smart things from new and old players. It was not easy, we have veteran players in front and back 4, 8 or nine who are very young. C: “It’s complicated in a branch when there are so many young people. “
“Many of the things I saw were beautiful. We created opportunities, but they are very intelligent with their speed and quality. We have to experience those conditions in the preseason and we will do it from here. It is an intelligent test, no. ” injuries so far, which is the most important thing. “
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