Manchester City vs Girona

Manchester’s Academy Stadium is the venue as Manchester City and Girona go head-to-head in an intriguing mid-season friendly.

Manchester City’s mid-season warm-up campaign starts a bit late as Pep Guardiola’s men aim to recover from a disappointing 2-1 home defeat to Brentford in their last Premier League fixture ahead of the World Cup break. A six-week hiatus from top-flight football has given Guardiola enough time to rally his troops and draw a plan to haul back a five-point deficit on league-leaders Arsenal. Before losing to Brentford, the ‘Cityzens’ had won four consecutive matches against fellow domestic rivals via an aggregate score of 8-2, netting 2+ goals on three occasions. Adding to Man City’s confidence, they have won both this season’s encounters against Spanish opposition, beating Sevilla in both Champions League group-stage legs via multi-goal margins while notably scoring 3+ goals in each clash.

As for Girona, a 1-1 draw against fellow La Liga adversary Osasuna last time out halted their 100% win ratio during the mid-season break (W2) yet extended their eye-catching unbeaten streak to eight matches (W4, D4). Interestingly, 14 of Girona’s last 15 games have seen both teams on the scoresheet, highlighting the potential for an exciting back-and-forth action. However, Michel’s men have failed to keep a single clean sheet across their nine travels since the start of the 2022/23 season, suggesting Erling Haaland & Co may have a field day this weekend. Extra-time excluded, they have scored over 1.5 goals only three times during that nine-game sequence. While that may dampen the spirits in the visiting camp, Girona can draw confidence from beating Man City 1-0 in their only previous H2H showdown.