Manchester City fell to a 4-3 defeat in a wonderfully chaotic opening preseason friendly at the Kenan Memorial Stadium in North Carolina. Celtic, much further into their preseason, took the lead early and led by two goals by the end of the first half.
City came back, drew level, and then threw it away – but there was plenty for both Pep Guardiola and Brendan Rogers to be pleased about.
As it happened
Last season, Manchester City won their fourth consecutive Premier League title and Celtic won their 54th Scottish Premiership. In a way, this was the British Super Cup – except one team was virtually at full strength while the other had four first-team starters and was relying heavily on youth.
In the first half, it showed. It really showed. If an alien landed in North Carolina and had the recent histories of Manchester City, Pep Guardiola and the disparity between English and Scottish football explained to them, they would have assumed the team in white and green was the world-conquering juggernaut and the team in blue the regular winners in a much worse league. They would also ask why the first thing of this new planet explained to them was the sporting ecosystem of the 80th largest country by land mass, and they probably wouldn’t be given much of an answer.
To put things mildly, Celtic were leagues ahead of City. The Scottish champions were just shy of three weeks into their preseason, while Guardiola’s side were making their first tentative steps into theirs. That sharpness and match readiness was the key separator. Celtic were free flowing, polished, composed. City were… disjointed.
There were moments of quality for the Boys in Blue; James McAtee looked consistently sharp throughout the first half, while Nico O’Reilly was extremely unlucky to see his third minute effort deflected just inches wide of the post.
Those moments were dwarfed by Celtic’s, though. Their first goal came 13 minutes in, with Reo Hatate nullifying the City midfield with one diagonal pass to Matt O’Riley. He took one touch, played a lovely ball in behind for Nicolas Kühn and he did the rest, driving goalwards before slotting a lovely finish into the far corner past Stefan Ortega.
Embed from Getty ImagesDespite Celtic dominating the quality, City were able to dominate the ball following the goal, and they found their equaliser exactly 20 minutes after going behind – but not before a pair of missed chances courtesy of Erling Haaland.
It’s been 46 days since he last took to the pitch, but he was still able to find himself in the pockets in the box which he loves. He first tried a low, right-footed effort and then a cheeky chip, but both were brushed away by Kasper Schmeichel. It’s fun to imagine another life in which he stayed at Manchester City, became number one and watched Haaland bury both chances. But that’s not this life, and instead he was grinning at the big Norwegian’s misfortune on his unofficial Celtic debut.
He was to be beaten 33 minutes in, though, as Haaland changed tact and laid the ball off for Oscar Bobb to strike just inside the area. Again, Schmeichel got a big touch, but this time it bounced ever so slowly over the line, as if mocking him. The shoe was on the other foot.
The rest of the half was just Celtic brilliance. It took them three minutes to retake the lead and it was a copy-paste of the first goal; one Hatate ball found Kühn in all kinds of space down the right, before he spun Josh Wilson-Esbrand inside out and curled a lovely finish high into the back of the net past a flailing Ortega.
Embed from Getty ImagesRight before halftime, they would extend their lead, too. This time, Kühn turned provider with a stunning, Modrić-esque ball in behind with the outside of his right boot before Kyogo Furuhashi rounded Ortega and slotted home into an empty net.
It was an imperious first half display. A total role reversal from a City point of view, as they chased shadows and paid the price.
Of course, this is preseason so changes aplenty are to be expected. Kasper Schmeichel was withdrawn for Viljami Sinisalo and, for City’s part, James McAtee for Máximo Perrone; it was those two who would play a part in an immediate response.
Oscar Bobb found space down the right and, as Kühn did in the first half, jinked into the area before laying the ball off to Perrone. He took one touch to control, and another to cooly roll a finish into the bottom left corner. After spending last season on loan with Las Palmas in La Liga, it was his first goal in sky blue – unofficial though it may have been.
Whatever Guardiola said at half time clearly resonated with the players – even if it was as simple as Sir Alex Ferguson’s famous ‘lads, it’s Spurs’ team talk. City didn’t grow into the game after half time so much as they exploded into it. 12 minutes into the second half, the deficit was destroyed and parity restored.
Haaland couldn’t get past Schmeichel for love nor money in the first half, but Sinisalo was a much more palatable challenge. Bobb assisted again, this time from the left and this time with a gorgeous hung cross. Bread and butter if you’ve got an enormous Norwegian terminator clone in the box. He leaped way above Liam Scales and nodded the ball into the back of the net without a whiff of challenge. 3-3 was the score, and all of Celtic’s first half quality was suddenly forgotten.
Embed from Getty ImagesTypical City. You think you’ve got them beaten, but then they call on the big man. Some things never change, preseason or otherwise.
After just over an hour, the first team regulars left the fray. Erling Haaland made way for Micah Hamilton, and Jack Grealish for Ben Knight. With that, only the substituted Ederson and academy boys Rico Lewis and Bobb remained from the diminished first team crop.
So, what did Celtic do? They scored immediately, of course! City’s line was remarkably high, Kwon Hyeok-Kyu was played in behind and squared it to Luis Palma, leaving Ederson was in no man’s land. It was a tap in – one of those rare unmissable chances. Despite playing second fiddle in the second half, Celtic were in front of this topsy-turvy clash once more.
Preseason exists to serve many purposes; enhance fitness, sharpen tactics and give fringe players a chance. Above all, though, it’s a spectacle; a low-stakes, big name exhibition for the far-afield football fan to enjoy. For the thousands in attendance at the Kenan Memorial Stadium’s second ever football match, that’s certainly what they got.
By the end of the game, Manchester City were a development squad with Ederson between the sticks. Every single outfielder was an academy graduate, and although they couldn’t find another goal, they were able to play a brand of football which resembled that of the first team – and that’s all Pep Guardiola and the City higher ups will care about.
From a Celtic point of view, defeating the world champions is an achievement regardless of the circumstances. They were excellent in the first half, and despite being second best in the second, they still managed to find their winner and hold on too.
The conclusion? There’s plenty for everyone to be encouraged by. No one was injured, fringe players played well, and Celtic look polished heading into the start of the Scottish Premiership season in ten days’ time. Everyone’s a winner. Mainly Celtic.
The lineups
MCI: Ortega; Lewis, Sampson-Pusey, Mbete, Wilson-Esbrand; Phillips, O’Reilly, McAtee; Bobb, Grealish, Haaland
CEL: Schmeichel; Ralston, Welsh, Scales, Taylor; McGregor, O’Riley, Hatate; Kühn, Maeda, Kyogo