Manchester City vs AC Milan
Ahead of this club friendly in New York, let me take you back to my adolescence.
To a time when there was a gulf between these teams.
One club was top dogs at home and abroad, the other was barely the best in its own backyard.
How times have changed.
For the past decade Manchester City has been the dominant force in England and one of the established big hitters in Europe for the first time in its history.
By contrast, AC Milan has often been living in the shadows of the club it shares a ground with (Inter Milan) and has rarely looked like making its mark at Europe’s top table – even if the side did reach last year’s Champions League semi-finals (largely achieved through a very favourable draw).
Whereas back in the day, Milan was the home for many of Europe’s top stars, City is now one of the few clubs which can attract such players and has the financial wherewithal on another planet to most, using its resources superbly.
Talking Points
History lesson over, although it should be pointed out Milan never plunged the depths of the third tier that City did for a solitary campaign in the late 1990s.
After all, they were Serie A runners-up last term so will fancy their chances of creating friendly highlights against the English champions.
It was against Milan – in the 1994 Champions League Final – that Pep Guardiola suffered one of his darkest days as a player, part of the Barcelona side destroyed 4-0 by Milan.
Thirty years on, the now City boss won’t have that in his mind, nor even the result, for this is more of a contest to get both sides match fit in readiness for the new campaign.
As it stands, Guardiola has admitted it is more likely he will have the same squad as last season, with the addition of recently arrived Brazilian winger Savio.
In their first pre-season friendly in midweek, City were far from full strength, using 14 academy graduates in their matchday squad, as they went down 4-3 to Celtic.
Yet there was still plenty to be upbeat about, not least the performance of Oscar Bobb who joined Maximo Perrone and Erling Haaland on the scoresheet.
Young midfielder Bobb shone as he also made two assists.
The 21 year-old Norwegian played a pivotal role in last season’s title race with a last-gasp goal at Newcastle which provide crucial in the final standings and will be hoping for more involvement in 2024/25.
Another player who came off the bench in that match on Tyneside to crucial effect was Kevin de Bruyne and, in recent days, Guardiola has made it clear that the Belgian talisman is going nowhere this summer, despite being heavily linked with a summer move to Saudi Arabia.
Another man linked with a move to the Saudi Pro-League is Brazil goalkeeper Ederson and Guardiola is not so sure about his future with the club where he has spent the past seven seasons and accumulated 17 trophies.
Should he leave, a favourite to replace him is Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, once of Milan and now at Paris St Germain.
Like City, Milan have been fairly quiet in the opening stages of the summer transfer window.
Like City, their sole signing to date has led to much excitement.
Fresh from guiding his nation to Euro 2024 success, step forward Alvaro Morata who has penned a four year deal after arriving from Atletico Madrid.
A replacement for France striker Olivier Giroud, Morata rose to prominence at Real Madrid before joining Juventus for a first spell in July 2014.
After winning two Italian titles with the Bianconeri, he returned to the Bernabeu in June 2016 when Los Blancos activated their buy-back clause.
Morata won the La Liga title in 2017 before making a big-money £65 million move to Chelsea that summer.
The striker would struggle at Stamford Bridge, and would leave for an initial loan to Atletico in January 2019 that would become permanent in July 2020.
He featured for Diego Simeone’s side last season, after managing 21 goals in 48 appearances across all competitions, ahead of a glorious summer with the national team.
Many Italians are excited by his arrival and believe he can help build a new character for the Rossoneri, now managed by Paulo Fonseca as they prepare to compete in the Soccer Champions Tour for the second consecutive year.
Spanish giants Real Madrid await in Chicago (August 1) and Barcelona in Baltimore (August 7) but first it’s City in the ‘city that never sleeps’.
History
These two clubs have only met twice before competitively.
That was in the 1978-79 UEFA Cup at the last-16 stage.
On that occasion, City drew 2-2 in the first leg in Italy when Brian Kidd and Paul Power found the net before Alberto Bigon grabbed a brace to ensure Milan finished the night level.
The second leg was more one-sided and resulted in a 3-0 home victory for City as Tommy Booth, Asa Hartford and Kidd were on target.
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