Guardiola joy as Real are seen off

Date published: 27 July 2017


MANCHESTER City manager Pep Guardiola praised his players after they hammered Real Madrid 4-1 in the ICC Tournament in front of a record crowd at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

After a goalless first half, Nicolas Otamendi, Raheem Sterling, John Stones and Brahim Diaz scored the goals to put Guardiola's team in charge against the Champions League winners.

Real scored a consolation through Oscar in the last minute of a match watched by a crowd of 93,098, a record attendance for football at the venue.

Kevin de Bruyne set up three of City's goals, sending in Sterling, picking out Stones and helping 17-year-old Diaz register with a terrific effort.

"The result is not so important but the way we fought for each other is," said City's manager, in quotes carried on the club's Twitter account.

"I'm proud of the way my team fought together."

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane was disappointed with the result but vowed not to dwell on it too much.

He said: "I'm not happy about the loss, of course. We did not play a bad game but it is a bad result.

"We are in preparation, it is the second game. No more talk about what has happened, we lose and that's it."

City were without new £52million signing Benjamin Mendy and the man from Monaco could be missing for two to three weeks, Guardiola revealed, as a result of a muscle problem.

Danilo took his place against Real, the club he signed from for a fee of £26.5m.

There is good news for City in the shape of David Silva's fitness. The midfielder is expected to be ready for the Premier League opener at Brighton on Saturday, August 12.