Audi Cup Report: A Win And A Loss

Manchester City 5 AC Milan 3

Blimey. Pre-season suddenly came to life, for forty-five minutes at least. As mentioned many times, pre-season matters little, but entertainment of this level is always appreciated.

Proof of how irrelevant pre-season is can be shown by having games on consecutive days. Having said that, City had to play the Full Members Cup Final in 1986 the day after playing a Manchester derby, United naturally refusing to move the game.

For half an hour, City were simply mesmerising. True, AC Milan were early into their pre-season and looked rusty, but some of the link-up play from City’s attacking players was a joy to watch. There’s plenty of promise of a healthy goals return for the upcoming season, an area that cost City dear last season.

And once more, Edin Dzeko looks like a man re-born. Wish he’d smile occasionally though.

Jovetic also looked excellent on his City debut, and Navas impressed once more

Yet despite it being pre-season, the concession of three quick goals still rankles with me, and led to feelings of mild panic.

It should be noted however that the defence that conceded those goals will hopefully never play together in a competitive game. It was very much a scratch line-up.

As sure as night follows day, a first half with huge excitement and a glut of goals is inevitably followed by a goalless second half. City’s substitutions only increased this likelihood.

Onto the final, and what would surely be a different line-up, with  a stronger defence but maybe a weaker attack.

Bayern Munich 2 Manchester City 1

Best hold off building that new trophy cabinet for now

The purpose of pre-season is for players to get a good work-out, and City’s team certainly got that, especially the defence. For half an hour they could hardly get hold of the ball, but they grew into the game and had plenty of chances. In many ways it was a classic European away performance. Did Pellegrini deliberately allow City to be on the back foot before changing things around? It wouldn’t surprise me.

Boyata played ok, but showed the urgent need for City to dive back into the transfer market and buy a central defender. Boyata is highly unlikely to be relied on in any big games, and the pursuit of Pepe suddenly makes a lot more sense. However, on the whole the defence played very well indeed, especially after the previous night’s six-minute horror show.

At the other end, Negredo showed what he is all about. His heading was erratic, but he consistently got into the right positions, and his goal showed power and no little speed. There’s goals in him.

In midfield, Milner and Barry just aren’t capable of running the show together against dynamic sides, despite their individual merits, so the early pressure was of little surprise. Nasri is certainly out to impress pre-season, but he too cannot take a game by the scruff of the neck.

As for the penalty, it is hard to judge the decision when the laws are so flimsy. They state deliberate handball as a reason for a player to be penalised, but it seems that having your hands in an unnatural position is reason enough. Zabaleta knew nothing of his hand ball but his hands were all over the place, so it was hardly the worse decision in the world. But either way, the referee was certainly a homer. You normally have to decapitate an opposition player to get a yellow card in a friendly, but this referee deemed a clean tackle by Boyata as worthy of a caution.

Such  a shame that Dzeko fluffed his lines this time, but at least we were spared the turmoil of a penalty shoot out.

Aguero and Nastastic aside, City should have a fitter squad now, and we can expect a strong line up to start against Arsenal in Helsinki.

As for BT Sport, it wasn’t the best of starts. Banal comments are the norm now in our football coverage, and so it was business as normal. I think i’d rather read Michael Owen’s tweets than subject myself to his expert analysis, my personal highlight being his description of Navas as a one-man club. And as for David James’ hair….