City agree Barca friendly after season starts

CITY will travel to Barcelona after the start of the Premier League season for a friendly match to raise money for ALS research.

The match, which is dubbed ‘A game for a greater cause’, will take place on August 24 at the Nou Camp.

It will be held for former Barcelona coach and player Juan Carlos Unzue, who suffers with Amyotrophic Lateral

Sclerosis (ALS), with funds from the friendly to go towards research for the illness.

Pep Guardiola visited the Nou Camp to announce the friendly.

The Blues face a trip to Newcastle on August 20, before flying to Spain for the Barcelona game, and will return to Manchester to host Crystal Palace the following weekend.

Guardiola said City will take a firstteam squad for the game, which will see him face his former player Xavi who is now Barca boss, and it will be only the Blues manager’s third return to the Nou Camp in charge of a side after losing 3-0 with Bayern Munich in 2015 and 4-0 with City in 2016, both in the Champions League.

Guardiola said: “I’m so happy, Manchester City will take part in this, FC Barcelona have shown why they’re the best, the president has bought everyone together. We need to fill the stadium, I need to get my tactics ready. We need to rest, Xavi will be there, we need to be ready.”

City face Club America in Houston on July 20 and Bayern Munich in Green Bay on July 23 on their pre-season tour, before competing in the Community Shield against Liverpool at Leicester on Saturday July 30. They begin their Premier League campaign away to West Ham on August 7.