After the defeat in the Community Shield final against Arsenal (1: 4 pens), ManCity coach Pep Guardiola made five changes: goalkeeper Ederson, Lewis, Aké, de Bruyne and Foden pushed Ortega Moreno, Kovacic and Grealish to the Bank. Ruben Dias and Stones were missing from the squad. Gvardiol was in the matchday squad for the first time.
Corner variant leads to the lead
Against promoted FC Burnley with ex-city player and current coach Vincent Kompany, things started as expected for the treble winner: After a fine corner variant, de Bruyne crossed to Rodrigo, whose header was used by striker Haaland from close range (4th). Man City then dominated the action.
Burnley around England’s U-21 hero Trafford in goal (came from ManCity) and the German defender and ex-Gladbacher Beyer held up well. But when the courageous Kompany team combined well to the front, they dropped significantly in the last third. Examples of this were Amdouni (just stopped by Rodrigo in the 28th) and Foster, who shot wide a minute later.
Haaland ice cold after Burnley’s urge phase
ManCity did it better: After Trafford first parried against Rodrigo (17th) and de Bruyne had left the field injured (23rd), Haaland struck again: The reigning top scorer (36 goals in 2022/23) completed the corner without a hitch ( 36.).
Rodrigo scores
With the restart, ManCity was back on the trigger, but didn’t get through for a long time. Also because Burnley was initially high again and defended well. It took until the 75th minute before the next goal was scored: Rodrigo dusted off dryly – the preliminary decision. Due to offensive inaccuracies by the Guardiola team, it stayed that way. Burnley’s dwindling strength made itself felt on the other side.
Gvardiol makes debut – Zaroury sees VAR red
While Gvardiol was substituted on for ManCity (80′), Burnley’s joker Zaroury made a nasty foul on Walker, for which he saw red after looking at the pictures in the review area (90’+4′).
Next matchday, Manchester City has a home game against Champions League participants Newcastle (19 August, 9 p.m.). Before that, the Skyblues will meet Europa League winners FC Sevilla as winners of the premier class in the UEFA Supercup in Piraeus (9 p.m., LIVE! at kicker). Burnley won’t continue until August 27th, then with the next home game (against Aston Villa).
