City fall to shoot-out defeat against Barcelona

Kalvin Phillips and Jacob Wright were the unlucky City players to see their penalties saved in front of 63,237 supporters at the Camping World Stadium.

Barcelona took the lead through Pau Victor’s low finish, with Nico O’Reilly’s equaliser then cancelled out by Pablo Torre on the stroke of half-time.

City deservedly drew level though when Jack Grealish found the top corner after great work from Mateo Kovacic before the hour mark.

Pep Guardiola’s men pressed for an advantage until the end, but would ultimately fall to the lottery of a shoot-out in our third pre-season friendly.

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What Happened

City’s opening two fixtures in the United States had ended in defeat, but those results didn’t reflect the positive performances Pep Guardiola’s men had put on.

And we started sharply in Orlando, with a raking ball from Kalvin Phillips, starting at centre-half, releasing Grealish who almost provided the first goal with a vicious low effort.

City went even closer to the opener just after the ten-minute mark when an exquisite ball into the far post from Oscar Bobb was met by Erling Haaland, who’s effort was scrambled off the line by Inaki Pena.

The Barcelona stopper had to be alert again soon after, clawing a deep Grealish free-kick behind for a corner, with the effort looking destined for the top corner.

Our Spanish opponents were next to threaten though, with Marc Casado firing just over from the edge of the area.

It was a warning sign for City, and Barcelona would take the lead with their next opportunity when Victor slotted home under the body of Ederson after being sent through on goal by a cleverly disguised flick.

Guardiola’s men were undeterred by the setback, with some intricate passing play carved open a chance for Kovacic inside the area, but the ball was nicked away from the Croatian as he shaped to shoot.

Phillips was next to test the Barcelona goal, forcing a fine reaction save from Pena with a free-kick, before Grealish once again almost found the near corner with an effort.

Our opponents’ goal was leading a charmed life, and it wasn’t long after that it was finally breached by O’Reilly.

His clever run in behind was found by Josko Gvardiol with an incisive pass, leaving the youngster with a simple task to place the ball into the far corner of the net.

It was just rewards for City who, bar that brief spell where Barcelona had taken the lead, were the better side in the first half, with Rico Lewis stinging the palms of Pena when linking up with Bobb down the right.

But we’d fall behind on the stroke of half-time when Victor sold a dummy, releasing Torre who made no mistake despite Ederson getting a hand to his effort.

City once again were quickest out of the traps, with some more exquisite link-up play between Kovacic and second half substitute Maximo Perrone opening up the Barcelona defence, but the latter’s attempted cutback was smothered by Pena in the early stages of the second half.

The equaliser would come just before the hour though, with Grealish the scorer, but Kovacic the architect.

Picking up play inside his own half, the Croatian cleverly turned away from his markers, raced into the space in front and poked a ball through to City’s number 10. 

It looked like he’d taken the ball too far wide but, against the angle, he rifled an unstoppable drive into the top corner with his weaker foot.

City continued to press for a winner but, heading into the final ten minutes, neither side would budge.

Lewis felt he should’ve had a penalty late on when he went down in the Barcelona box, but his protests fell on deaf ears, before substitute Micah Hamilton fired over after cutting inside on his favoured right foot.

But as the game ticked into stoppage time it was Barcelona who were kicking themselves, with an excellent last-ditch challenge from Callum Doyle thwarting Robert Lewandowski when the Poland international had been sent clean through.

It was down to the lottery of a penalty shoot-out, with Phillips and Wright both seeing their penalties saved by substitute ‘keeper Ander Astralaga while Barcelona made no mistake with their three kicks to seal the victory.

How we lined up

Ederson retained his place between the sticks with Rico Lewis, Kalvin Phillips, Josko Gvardiol and Josh Wilson-Esbrand lining up as a back four.

Mateo Kovacic sat at the base of the midfield with youngsters Nico O’Reilly and James McAtee in front of him.

Jack Grealish and Oscar Bobb started out wide with Erling Haaland, hoping to maintain his record of scoring in every game so far during our USA Tour, lining up as centre-forward.

City XI: Ederson (C) (Ortega Moreno 46’), Lewis, Phillips, Gvardiol (Doyle 66’), Wilson-Esbrand (Mbete 75’), Kovacic (Wright 66’), O’Reilly (Susoho 66’), McAtee (Fatah 66’), Bobb (Hamilton 75’), Grealish (Heskey 84’), Haaland (Perrone 46’)

Subs: Carson, Simpson Pusey, Katongo, Galvez, Oboavwoduo, Ndala, Mfuni, Samuel, Knight

Barcelona XI: Pena (Astralaga 61’), Araujo (Toni Fernandez 46’) Lenglet (C) (I. Martinez 75’), Torre (Darvich 61’), Victor (Lewandowski 61’), Bernal, Roque (Quim Junyent 46’), Fort (A. Valle 46’), Dominguez (Romeu 75’), Martin (Cuenca 75’), Casado (Balde 75’)

Subs: Guille Fernandez, Unai, Mika Faye, Alexis Olmedo, Kochen

Up next

City’s final fixture of our USA Tour sees us face Chelsea in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday 3 August.

Kick-off at the Ohio Stadium is set for 22:30 (UK)/17:30 (EDT) with the match available to watch live on CITY+ in selected regions.

For more information, click here.

Next Fixture

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Sat 03 Aug

USA Tour 2024

Man City

22:30

BST

Chelsea