It’s fair to say Manchester City played somewhat decently in their pre-season clash against Real Madrid on Thursday morning.

The Citizens put on an inspired performance to hammer the European champions 4-1 in an exceptional second half showing. It will certainly provide Pep Guardiola with great optimism coming into the new season.

Incredibly too, they were facing a Real side brimming with first team regulars even in Cristiano Ronaldo’s absence. Luka Modric, Marcelo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema amongst others all experienced the loss first hand.

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Los Blancos did put up a fight, though, and the two teams exchanged opportunities in a goalless first-half. Both Ederson and Kiko Casilla were kept busy, notably denying Casemiro and Gabriel Jesus respectively.

The floodgates opened after the break however, with Nicolas Otamendi paving the way for victory. Casilla dealt with John Stones’ header poorly, allowing City’s Argentinean centre-back to arrive on the scene and rifle home the rebound.

Just seven minutes later and City doubled their lead; Raheem Sterling finishing calmly at the near post after Kevin de Bruyne sliced open the Real defence.

The Belgian turned provider again for the Citizen’s third with Stones grabbing a rare goal. After a set piece broke down, the Englishman arrived in the area to find the net with a sweeping right-footed finish.

Both sides then proceeded to exchange screamers, Brahim Diaz obliging first with a stunning top corner strike to put Guardiola’s men 4-0 ahead. A clean sheet wasn’t to be, though, with Oscar Rodriguez finding the net from 30 yards.

Anybody putting a 4-1 win for City down on their betting slip will now be a very rich man, that’s for sure.

Watch the highlights below:

Regardless of how competitively the teams treated the match, Los Blancos’ midfield was run ragged with fluid City moves of which De Bruyne was the chief architect.

There is a lot of pressure on Guardiola’s shoulders this season, no more amplified than by the £216 million the Citizens have shed this summer. It’s fair to say the club is putting all their resources into securing the league title.

And given such a convincing performance against a European juggernaut, the Champions League trophy is likely in their crosshair too.

This latest result will give Guardiola nothing but confidence and the manner in which the win was secured will make it even sweeter. You only need to refer back to 2010 to see the Spaniard as something of an expert at routing Real.

More performances like that and City, no doubt, will be a force to be reckoned with.

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