Match crackled with intensity
NRG Stadium hosted exhibition short on impact, long on emotion
The day before he coached Manchester City against rival Manchester United, Pep Guardiola guided his team through a practice at NRG Stadium.
Guardiola marveled at the grandiose size of the Texans’ home and wondered if all the seats would be filled Thursday night for the first Manchester Derby played outside of England.
The official attendance was about 5,000 short of a sellout, but Guardiola was surprised 67,401 people showed up to watch a friendly.
“Yesterday when we came here for the training session, I saw the stadium and said, ‘It’s impossible. We’re not going to have a full crowd,’ ” Guardiola said after the game. “It was really, really good. Hopefully the fans enjoyed. I was really impressed with how many people came to see us.”
The game — won 2-0 by United — meant nothing compared with what City and United will play for in the English Premier League and UEFA Champions League, but the intensity was unmistakable throughout the first hour.
Big-name stars Sergio Agüero, Paul Pogba, Kevin De Bruyne and Antonio Valencia were on the field for the opening whistle.
Romelu Lukaku gave fans a special treat with an incredible display of pace and power before his world-class finish for the winning goal. Before the fans could settle into their seats after Lukaku’s opener, rising star Marcus Rashford doubled the lead with a strong strike.
Plenty of fouls
The teams combined for 24 fouls, including three yellow cards. The fouls started quickly, too. In the third minute, City defender Vincent Kompany slid into Lukaku from behind. In the fourth minute, United defender Daley Blind slid hard into City midfielder Patrick Roberts and drew a harsh whistle from the referee.
In the 18th minute, City midfielder De Bruyne stabbed in from behind as Rashford lined up a shot and clipped his foot. Rashford was down for a moment after his shot went well wide.
“That’s the way it goes,” De Bruyne said of the physicality despite the game being an exhibition. “We need to go fully. It’s the first game, but we need to prepare ourselves to be ready for the season. Even the first game or not, everybody is going in.”
Both teams go to different parts of the United States for their next games in the International Champions Cup. United will face Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. City will face Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur.
They are using the games as warm-ups for the start of the regular season Aug. 11. The opponents are world-class, but to compete in the Premier League, that’s what they need.
United coach Jose Mourinho was a pioneer of scheduling tough preseason competition, so he was happy with what he described as a “very good training session” Thursday night.
Better than practice
“We had to play well, especially when the game had more quality in the first half,” Mourinho said. The intensity was good. Players were tired. I was pleased, and I am sure that Pep is the same. The result is not the most important thing.
“The most important thing is to give the players quality training and this is high-quality training because the teams are good, because the stadium is amazing, because the fans are fantastic, because (promoter) Relevent (Sports) managed to give us a good surface. Everything was good.”