A night of great football at a sold-out Barbera Stadium.
Peppe Guardiola’s men win the Anglo-Palermitan Trophy: Haaland opens the scoring, then the Dutchman closes the match. But Inzaghi’s Rosanero leave to applause.
It was a great celebration, in the stands and on the pitch. Manchester City displayed their technical prowess, beating Palermo 3-0 and winning the Anglo-Palermitan Trophy.
Despite the obvious gap, the Rosanero performed well, especially in the first half.
The Barbera Stadium, overflowing in all positions, enjoyed a night of great football with two teams certainly far apart in terms of quality, but united by an ambitious ownership.
Palermo, aiming for Serie A, and Manchester City, aiming to return to the top of the Premier League and Europe, faced off head-to-head.
Inzaghi and Guardiola deployed almost standard lineups, partly due to a run-in period ahead of their first competitive matches: the Rosanero in the Coppa Italia and City in the league.
Superpippo deployed three of the transfer market’s four aces: Bani, Augello, and Gyasi from the start, with a 3-5-2 formation featuring Brunori and Pohjanpalo as the attacking players.
Guardiola deployed a 4-2-3-1 with Cherki, Marmush, and Bobb operating behind Haaland.
The match immediately got underway, with Palermo attempting to surprise the City with aggression and immediate counterattacks.
Ceccaroni almost took the lead in the third minute, heading just wide of the post.
The first 20 minutes were essentially balanced, but then Haaland broke the deadlock in the 25th minute, firing in at the far post with surgical precision.
Two minutes later, Pohjanpalo tried to unleash a header at the Barbera, but his header didn’t surprise Trafford. City grew in strength and almost doubled their lead towards the end, with Cherki finding Diakité ready to deflect it.
In the second half, Guardiola’s initial changes didn’t detract from their effectiveness at all. In the 14th minute, Reijnders handled Savinho’s pass well and easily placed the ball past Gomis.
The Rosanero, however, remained unfazed and attempted to reopen the game a few minutes later with Segre firing high in front of goal.
Inzaghi used his bench with a robust reshuffle of his starting eleven, and Palumbo also attempted to claim glory with a curling shot that went wide.
Le Douaron also had a go, coming from behind but lacking precision.
The City, however, decided to run riot, with Bernardo Silva wasting a chance to score a third, while Reijnders, again assisted by Savinho, failed to do so.
The former AC Milan player broke through centrally to score his second, making it 3-0.
WE ARE ALSO IN FACEBOOK – INSTAGRAM – THREADS – TWITTER – GOOGLE | NEWS