City Fall Just Short In 7-Goal Pre-Season Opener

3 August 2024 Off By Harry

A 7-goal thriller in North Carolina goes Celtic’s way.

City went into their first game of the USA Tour 2024 up against a Celtic side, who’s season starts in just over a week.

The early signs showed City were up for the game, with their first big chance coming in the 3rd minute. A well-worked move gave youngster O’Reilly a sight of goal, but the shot hit the side netting.

Celtic were the first to get on the scoresheet though. In the 13th minute, Kuhn went on to score a magnificent solo effort in the left-hand side of the net after a well-worked quick break to put them ahead against the Premier League champions.

The next big chance fell the way of Haaland. A quick passing move from City left him with a 1-on-1 against the former Leicester keeper Kasper Schmeichel. Schmeichel made himself big to deny City the equaliser.

Schmeichel was there again to deny Haaland’s chip shot 8 minutes later, after another quick passing-move from City to catch the Celtic defence out.

City’s pressure eventually paid off, when Bobb’s shot just about made it into the Celtic net in the 33rd minute. Haaland cleverly left it (intentionally or not) for his fellow Norwegian. Schmeichel tried to keep it out but he could only succeed in slowing it down and the Celtic defence had finally been breached.

Celtic weren’t to be pegged back for long. After another quick break, Kunh checked inside and put it past Ortega to restore their lead in the 36th minute.

Just before half-time, Celtic were struggling to clear the ball. Haaland tried to punish them, but it went out for a goal-kick, much to the relief of the Scottish side. Celtic were able to capitalise very quickly after this. A wonderful pass from Celtic’s hero so far, Kuhn, set up Kyogo from his well-timed run, who was able to round Ortega and slot the ball in the net to double Celtic’s advantage at the Kenan Memorial Stadium.

Into the 2nd half, and City hit straight back in the 46th minute. Perroni was able to side-foot the ball home into the bottom-left hand corner of Celtic’s goal after fantastic set-up play by Bobb, with his first touch of the game to half the deficit for City.

Grealish also had a chance soon after from another superb bit of build-up from the blues, but it was deflected behind for a corner. The resulting corner saw City employing a corner tactic designed to stretch the Celtic players who were defending the corner. This allowed Haaland to head the ball home to once again make the game all-square in North Carolina.

City continued to pressure the Celtic defence, but no other goals were to fall for the World Champions. Instead, Celtic scored the final goal of the game in the 68th minute. A long-ball caught the City defence out, leading to the substitute Palma scoring the eventual winner of the game.

City will look for a better result on Saturday (the 27th of July 2024), as they face AC Milan in New York at 23:00 BST to continue their USA Tour 2024.

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