Manchester City have officially announced two preseason games, following reports from earlier in the month, which revealed the opponents for Pep Guardiola and his depleted squad this summer.
We covered reports earlier in the month from Sam Lee of The Athletic, who revealed City would be playing Preston North End and City Football Group side ES Troyes AC in preseason this summer - The Athletic writer adding that Guardiola would be taking a close look at the likes of Luke Mbete (CB/17), Romeo Lavia (DM/17), James McAtee (MD/18), and Liam Delap (ST/18), with Cole Plamer (FWD/19) already promoted to the first team permanently last season.
Today, City have announced that they will play Preston North End at the Academy Stadium on the 27th of July (Tuesday) at 19:00 (BST), with ticketing information to follow soon, and a fixture against Troyes scheduled for the 31st of July (Saturday) at the newly-promoted Ligue 1 side's Stade de l'Aube, with ticketing information to follow soon.
The game against the Championship side can be watched on CITY+, which is the club's subscription-based content service, with broadcasting information for the game against last season's Ligue 2 winners to follow in due course.
Speaking to the club website, City and City Football Group CEO Ferran Soriano spoke about the scheduled fixture against the two CFG sides:
"We are delighted to confirm this meeting of two City Football Group clubs. ESTAC had an amazing season since it joined the City Football Group. We look forward to having this opportunity to meet in person and in Troyes to continue exchanging knowledge and experiences between ESTAC and Manchester City. We are also looking forward to meeting with the Troyes fans and everybody connected to the club, to continue developing our family relationship. The game will provide a competitive environment on the field for both teams to continue their preparations for the season. We expect a vibrant game and a fantastic spectacle."
City will be without players that took part in the Euros and Copa America this summer in preseason, opening up an opportunity to impress for the likes of prolific academy striker Liam Delap.
Well-sourced Martin Blackburn of The Sun reports that several Championship clubs are interested in acquiring the services of the 18-year-old on loan, but Pep Guardiola reportedly won't sanction any deal, at least not until he has a new striker, according to the report.
Blackburn writes that the Catalan is a big fan of Delap, who scored 24 goals in Premier League 2 last season - the most recorded in one season in the competition's history - helping City to the league title.
In other news, Simon Bajkowski of the Manchester Evening News has revealed that City have moved a group of around 50 players and staff from the Under-18s and Under-23s, who were on a preseason schedule in Loughborough this week, back to the City Football Academy to try and prevent further outbreak after several players tested positive for COVID-19.
Bajkowski informs that City insist that their preparations for the academy season will not be affected by the outbreak and that there will be no knock-on effects for when the first team players return next week.
Written by: @NA1907_
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