Guardiola praises young talents after Manchester City’s USA tour victory over Chelsea
City finish USA tour with thrilling 4-2 victory over Chelsea Credit: None
Manchester City ended their 2024 USA Tour on a high note with a 4-2 victory over Chelsea in Columbus, Ohio, witnessed by over 71,000 fans.
Erling Haaland's hat-trick and Oscar Bobb's impressive goal lead City to a win over their Premier League opponents at Ohio Stadium.
The victory marks a successful conclusion to City's two-week stay in America.
Talking to mancity.com, Pep Guardiola expressed his satisfaction with the tour, particularly praising Bobb, James McAtee, and Nico O’Reilly for their performances.
Reflecting on the tour, Guardiola emphasised the value of facing strong teams like Celtic, AC Milan, Barcelona, and Chelsea.
"To play teams like Celtic, Milan and Barcelona and now Chelsea is very good because they challenge you," he said.
Guardiola also noted the growth of City's fanbase in the US, with the tour helping to spread the club's global appeal.
"It was really good in terms of our Club for the brand, to see how many shirts are here, it’s amazing," he remarked.
The City boss highlighted the importance of the tour in preparing for the upcoming season, particularly the Community Shield match against Manchester United next weekend.
He acknowledged the outstanding performances of young talents Rico Lewis and Oscar Bobb.
Guardiola reflected on the overall success of the tour, saying, "Every game was much better than the previous one. We played quite similar versus Barcelona, but the feelings were really good."
The manager also mentioned the high entertainment value of the matches, which featured numerous goals and thrilling moments.
"I want to give advice for the promoters. We lost 4-3 v Celtic, seven goals, 2-2 v Barca, 3-2 v Milan, six goals here, every game we scored good goals. If they hire us for next season, people will be happy because we score and concede a lot!" he said, highlighting the excitement generated by the team's performances.
In conclusion, Guardiola expressed his delight with the experience gained by the Academy players, who faced European heavyweights for the first time.
Although he acknowledged that some are not yet ready for first-team football, he believes the experience has been invaluable.
“We have two or three [Academy players ready for senior football].”
“The other ones are not prepared to be with us, some of them will be in the second team, some of them will be loaned. I would say they are not still prepared, but we saw them.
“The experience [they gained], they played against the Chelsea team or Barcelona, it’s an unbelievable experience for them.
“I’m pretty sure they came out from here being better players and this is the reason why.” he stated.
