Girona 1 Manchester City 0: Gundogan returns in friendly defeat

Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan played his first game of 2017 as Pep Guardiola's side lost 1-0 to Girona in a friendly.

Published : Aug 16, 2017 00:26 IST

Ilkay Gundogan made his first appearance in eight months as Manchester City lost 1-0 to Girona at Estadi Municipal de Montilivi.

The midfielder, who suffered a cruciate ligament injury in the 2-0 Premier League win over Watford last December, managed just under 20 minutes as a second-half substitute during Tuesday's friendly defeat.

Pep Guardiola named a much-changed side that included youngsters Brahim Diaz, Phil Foden and Tosin Adarabioyo for the meeting in Catalonia, with Danilo the only survivor from the starting XI of last Saturday's win at Brighton and Hove Albion.

Portu scored the only goal of the game after 14 minutes, converting past Claudio Bravo after a slick counter-attack from the home side.

Aleix Garcia, Pablo Maffeo, Marlos Moreno and Douglas Luiz, who are on loan at Girona from City, were all involved in the match.

City had its chances, with Gabriel Jesus hitting the crossbar late on, but it was unable to find an equaliser.

Guardiola's squad is in Spain for some warm-weather training before its next league game against Everton on Monday.

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