The Blues, playing their first game since returning for pre-season, were understandably sluggish while Dundee were a yard quicker and much sharper having begun their own pre-season a fortnight ago.
Manuel Pellegrini opted to get the maximum use out of the game by playing two virtually different starting XI’s in either half but the hosts were already two goals to the good by the break.
First, Gary Harkins scored after his penalty had been saved by Willy Caballero with the Dundee man following up to force the ball home on 26 minutes.
Eleven minutes later and City were 2-0 down when Luka Tankulic’s effort struck a sky blue body and wrong-footed Caballero and send the majority of the 6,859 home crowd wild.
The Blues made wholesale changes as planned after the break with onlyy Callabero and Emyr Huws remaining from the team that began the first-half but apart from a half-chance from Alvaro Negredo and a Samir Nasri snap-shot, City created little in the way of presentable opportunities.
City will resume action against Hearts next Friday.
City 1st half: Caballero, Bossaerts, Kolarov, Denayer, Boyata, Navas, Fernando, Rodwell, Huws, Jovetic, Guidetti
City 2nd half: Caballero, Richards, Leigh, Rekik, Nastasic, Zuculini, Garcia, Nasri, Negredo, Huws, Sinclair
Att: 6,859
