Bayern Munich beat Manchester City 1-0 in a pre-season friendly at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night to hand Pep Guardiola a loss in his first game in charge. Up against his former side, Guardiola handed debuts to many young players as did Ancelotti but an Erdal Ozturk eventually separated the two sides.
Squads
Bayern Munich: Ulreich, Lahm, Bernat, Alaba, Rafinha, Martinez, Ribery, Alonso, Feldhahn, Green, Benko
Manchester City: Caballero, Maffeo, Adarabioyo, Kolarov, Angelino,Fernando, Fernandinho, Zinchenko, Barker, Navas, Iheanacho
It was Pep Guardiola’s first game in charge of Manchester City just as it was Carlo Ancelotti’s first game for Bayern Munich. The two managers have immense respect for each other and the Catalan boss had even left the Italian a message on his whiteboard for when he arrived wishing him good luck.
Since it was a pre-season game, most of the usual suspects in the starting lineups were missing for both teams thanks to the rigours of the 2016 Copa America and Euro 2016. Manuel Neuer, an ever-present for Bayern between the sticks, was replaced by Sven Ulreich who did not exactly play the role of a sweeper-keeper while Guardiola started three teenagers in defence with Aleksandar Kolarov the only experienced defender in the back four ahead of Willy Caballero.
Caballero saves City in the first half
Guardiola had trained the Bundesliga side well in his three years at the club and they dominated the early stages of the match. With Xabi Alonso and Philipp Lahm playing in midfield, they easily kept the ball moving by finding space and spotting the runs of Ribery and Alaba on the left.
But City were also playing with a plan to press their opponents high up the pitch and Iheanacho won the ball back in one play to set up Oleksandr Zinchenko. The 19-year-old was making his City debut and he had a shot that was low and on target but eventually blocked.
Ribery was pulling strings for Bayern and the Frenchman seemed to be the only player taking the game seriously, using his dancing feet and flicks time and again to get into the box. He combined well with Alaba to set up a real opportunity to score with a neat one-two.
Alaba managed to steal past the inexperienced Maffeo to get a shot off but it was straight at Cabellero who managed to hold on to the effort. The two combined again to set up Julian Green who was one-on-one with Cabellero who denied them yet again with a reflex save.
Bayern take the lead in second half
City made four changes at half-time and Caballero came off for Angus Gunn while Gale Clichy, Fabian Delph and Wilfried Bony also came on in a bid to impress the new manager. Bayern also made three subs with Alonso, Ribery and Alaba coming off for Niklas Dorsch, Daniel Hagler and Erdal Ozturk.
But most of the second half saw both sides canceling each other out. It was a half of few chances compared to the first 45 minutes as City managed to keep a lot of the ball but failed to do anything with it in the final third with Bayern up to the task in their own half.
However, in the 75th minute, Erdal Ozturk gave Bayern the lead after they won back possession, albeit thanks to a wicked deflection. The 20-year-old cut in from the left and unleashed a strike from outside the box and though Gunn may have had it covered, the shot deflected off Clichy who was trying to get out of the way instead of blocking it and the ball came off his foot and beat Gunn to find the back of the net.
Manchester City had a couple of chance to equalise but the home side held on to give Ancelotti a win while the Guardiola era started off with a loss.
