Kicking off what may be his final pre-season in the Manchester City hotseat, Pep Guardiola puts his side through their paces against Celtic in their first friendly of the summer on Wednesday.
The two national champions convene at the Kenan Memorial Stadium in North Carolina, where Brendan Rodgers's side arrive on a high following their 4-0 crushing of DC United.
Match preview
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Yet another Premier League winners' medal has been safely stored in Guardiola's enormous silverware collection, as well as a Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup crown, but repeating the tremendous top-flight, FA Cup and Champions League treble of 2023 proved a step too far for Man City.
After the latest chapter in their Real Madrid rivalry ended with Los Blancos dumping them out of Europe's premier competition, Man City failed to make lightning strike twice at Wembley in the FA Cup final versus Manchester United, who marched to the win that arguably saved Erik ten Hag's job.
Of course, Wembley could be Guardiola's permanent home from 2025 onwards if reports about potentially replacing Gareth Southgate as England head coach are to be believed, and there is a growing belief that the legendary Catalan will not be renewing his contract at the Etihad beyond the end of the coming season.
However, the City faithful can look forward to at least one more season of Guardiola touchline antics, as the Citizens pursue an unparalleled fifth straight Premier League title, having already made history by holding off the threat of Arsenal and clinching four in a row last season.
The Citizens' tour of the USA will also see Guardiola's men test their mettle against three other continental heavyweights in AC Milan, Barcelona and Chelsea, before the English champions seek their first domestic honour of the season in the Community Shield, squaring up to old foes Man United on August 10.
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Slightly further north of the Etihad Stadium, perennial national champions Celtic also reigned supreme in the Scottish Premiership once more, despite bidding an emotional farewell to Tottenham Hotspur-bound Ange Postecoglou and recalling an old flame to take the reins again.
Rodgers may have seen his Leicester City career end on a sour note, but the ex-Liverpool manager quickly made his mark at Celtic Park once more, overseeing a Premiership and Scottish Cup double as the Bhoys wrapped up their 54th top-flight title with a game to spare.
However, Celtic's attempts to mix it with the Champions League big boys once again ended in abject misery, as the Hoops took just four points from six fixtures to finish rock bottom of their section, and one wonders how Rodgers's side will fare in the new league phase format.
Celtic's preparations for 2024-25 have given the Bhoys plenty to write home about so far, though, as after a low-key 1-1 draw with Ayr United to start the summer off, Rodgers's men overcame Queen's Park in a 10-goal spectacular before crushing DC United 4-0 at Audi Field on Saturday.
Amid Celtic's fierce battle to keep hold of him, midfield maestro Matt O'Riley struck twice in Saturday's success, and Rodgers's side will round off their pre-season preparations against Chelsea in Indiana on July 27 once Tuesday's clash of the champions is done and dusted.
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Team News
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No fewer than 15 Man City players were summoned for Euro 2024 or Copa America duty in the summer, and the sole representative at the latter tournament - Argentine champion Julian Alvarez - is also competing for his nation at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The 14 players called up for Euros duty was the most of any club team, and all 14 of them - Rodri, Kyle Walker, Phil Foden, John Stones, Ruben Dias, Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake, Joao Cancelo, Matheus Nunes, Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Jeremy Doku, Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol - will not be involved here as they recuperate, but the latter two will arrive in the USA later this month.
However, Scandinavian sensation Erling Haaland is set to be involved in Man City's first friendly of the summer, as are Jack Grealish, Kalvin Phillips and Ederson, despite reports that the latter is being targeted by the Saudi Pro League.
The Citizens have now wrapped up a deal to sign exciting Brazilian attacker Savio from sister club Troyes, and he is expected to eventually link up with the squad in the USA, but he will not be involved on Wednesday.
In contrast, some of Celtic's summer internationals were present in Rodgers's squad for the DC United fixture, including Anthony Ralston, James Forrest, Callum McGregor and Greg Taylor, although none of them started.
Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston are still being given more time to recover from their Copa exploits, as is new signing Kasper Schmeichel, who was a key figure in the Denmark side that reached the Euro 2024 quarter-finals.
However, Atletico Madrid-linked O'Riley was controversially omitted from the Scandinavians' squad, while Daizen Maeda did not make the cut for the weekend's victory for unexplained reasons.
Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Ederson; Lewis, Doyle, Mbete, Wilson-Esbrand; Phillips, Perrone; Bobb, McAtee, Grealish; Haaland
Celtic possible starting lineup:
Bain; Donovan, Welsh, Scales, Anderson; Hatate, Iwaka, O'Riley; Kuhn, Furuhashi, Palma
We say: Manchester City 2-2 Celtic
Fatigue should not come into play too much for Celtic on Tuesday, as Rodgers unsurprisingly rotated his resources heavily for the weekend's success and can call upon a few more first-team regulars than his opposite number Guardiola.
As the Bhoys have already developed a taste for goals in pre-season, a youthful City defence should come under siege, but Haaland and co can fight fire with fire in an entertaining draw.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Ben Knapton
