Gareth Taylor’s side will take part in the first-ever Perth International Football Cup from 21 August - 2 September along with French giants Paris Saint Germain and fellow Barclays Women’s Super League clubs West Ham United and Leicester City.
While it’s our first visit Down Under, we have enjoyed three pre-season tours before and here’s how they panned out.
2017 | Germany & France
Ahead of the Women’s Super League moving back to a calendar to match the European schedule, City headed to the continent for warm-up matches.
It began with a tough game in Germany against 1 FFC Frankfurt who had won the Champions League just two years earlier.
A youthful City team were missing many of the first-team players who would join up with the squad later following their involvement in the European Championship.
Goals from Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic, Saskia Matheis and Julia Matuschewski handed the Bundesliga side a 3-0 win.
From there, we headed across Europe to take part in the Toulouse International Ladies Cup in the south of France.
We began with a tough game against Marseille who would go on to be runners-up in the French league, and they secured a 4-2 victory over Nick Cushing’s team.
City welcomed back many of our international stars and missed an early opportunity to take the lead when Nikita Parris’s penalty was saved by Meline Gerard.
A Valerie Gauvin double and Sakina Karchaoui goal left City trailing 3-0 at half-time before Sandie Toletti added a fourth for Marseille.
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But City kept fighting and a smart brace from Jane Ross reduced the deficit.
Next up was arguably the best team in the world, as City faced Olympique Lyonnais who had just won the Treble and would go on to achieve it again in the 2017/18 season.
And it was a memorable victory as we rode our luck to secure a 3-2 victory thanks to Pauline Bremer’s 86th minute winner.
An Izzy Christiansen double fired us ahead before Camile Abily hit two for the French side who also hit the woodwork five times.
2018 | United States
The following summer, City headed to Oregon for a training camp before moving on to Florida for the inaugral International Champions Cup that included US play-off runners-up North Carolina Courage and Paris Saint Germain.
But we began with another game against Lyon who had raided our squad in the summer, taking England internationals Lucy Bronze and Christiansen.
City, meanwhile, had new signings Caroline Weir and Gemma Bonner on the bench ready to make their debuts.
However it was a tough start at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium as the French side raced into a three-goal lead inside 17 minutes.
Eugenie Le Sommer scored twice before setting up Ada Hegerberg for a third and the game finished 3-0.
In the third place play-off game three days later, we beat PSG 2-1 as Weir showed her huge potential.
After falling behind to a first minute finish from Melike Pekel, the Scotland international claimed assists for goals from Jill Scott and Mie Leth Jans.
2019 | United States
We returned to America the following year as the International Champions Cup moved to North Carolina.
City faced the previous year’s winners North Carolina Courage with Lyon playing Atletico Madrid in the other semi-final.
Playing at their home ground WakeMed Soccer Park, City included new signings Laura Coombs, Aoife Mannion, Matilde Fidalgo, Lee Geum-min and Tyler Toland in the squad.
The US side were in the middle of their season but it was the visitors who led at half-time when Georgia Stanway fired in Janine Beckie’s pass.
A nearby thunderstorm forced a second half pause with 15 minutes remaining, and when they returned Courage’s McKenzie Meehan scored with six minutes remaining before Jessica McDonald hit the winner in injury time to snatch a 2-1 win.
That meant we had another third place play-off clash, this time with Spanish champions Atletico.
It was to be a thriller at a hot and humid Cary, as the lead exchanged hands three times before City came out on top 3-2.
Lauren Hemp’s first half opener was cancelled out by quickfire Virginia Torrecilla and Angela Sosa goals either side of the hour mark.
Beckie equalised with six minutes remaing before Tessa Wullaert fired in the winner with the last kick of the game.
