Manchester City have won the 2023 UEFA Super Cup after beating Sevilla 5-4 on penalties and lifting their fourth trophy of the year. Huge.
Pep Guardiola and his squad were given a pretty early shock to the system after the Europa League champions took the lead in the 25th minute thanks to a thumping header from Youssef En-Nesyri.
The 26-year-old Morrocan forward was the same man who dumped Man United out of Europe in the semi-finals back in April after scoring twice and his goal was enough to send the Spaniards into half-time 1-0 up at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens.
Sevilla nearly made it 2-0 around five minutes into the second half following an impressive counter-attack which was only foiled by an even more impressive save from Ederson. However, as they virtually always do, Man City soon reacted and found their foothold through Cole Palmer‘s equaliser. At it again.
Great instinct to arrive at the back post when even Haaland wasn’t quite in the right place.
Powering home a header of his own, the Wythenshawe-born youngster who scored the opener in City’s Community Shield defeat against Arsenal got Pep’s team back on level terms in the 63rd minute — what a great few months it’s been for him, having won the U21 Euros with England last month.
ADVERTISEMENT
After drawing things up, City started to display more of the fluid football that we’ve seen so much from them in recent years and which helped them win the treble back in June, with 21-year-old Palmer himself being at the centre of a lot of it and nearly grabbing a second just moments later.
Despite having to do without the creative nouse of Kevin de Bruyne, who has now been ruled out for up to four months and could quite probably miss the rest of the year/first half of the new season, the Blues started making a few more chances and turning the screw.
ADVERTISEMENT
However, Sevilla were still well and truly in the game, regularly threatening on the break and the longer the game went on, the more it looked like it would go to penalties — and it did. Thankfully for Pep, they managed to get over the line and win the shootout. Here’s the moment they won it:
Both sides delivered a truly incredible set of penalties but it was Nemanja Gudelj’s miss that stung the bar and sealed it for the Manchester side. A second European trophy in just a few months for City, the fourth piece of silverware in 2023 and a fourth Super Cup at a record-three clubs for Pep in his career.
They might have been favourites heading into the match but the opposition certainly didn’t make it easy for them and any team would have found it hard to make it past Sevilla, but they did. Treble-winners and even more emphatic champions of European than before. Not a bad start to the 2023/24 season, is it?
ADVERTISEMENT
Meanwhile, earlier today one of their treble-winning squad members reportedly agreed to depart from the Etihad after five years as the club is said to have accepted an offer for defender Aymeric Laporte.
We don’t expect it’ll hold them back from winning even more trophies this season.
Featured Image — Manchester City/TNT Sports (via Twitter)
Sport
Details released of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners while Mayor
Emily Sergeant
Details of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester have been released.
In case you need bringing up to speed on the situation a little first, Manchester City was found guilty back in September all of its charges related to the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and on top of that, was also found guilty of the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.
According to the Premier League, the independent Commission found that Manchester City had arranged so-called ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors.
These were part of a disguised funding scheme – with those sponsors only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
The remainder was then funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.
The Commission also concluded, as quoted by the Premier League, that the club had ‘made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League investigation’.
Within the past week or so, it has since come to light that now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham had dealings with Manchester City during his tenure as Greater Manchester Mayor, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has now issued a public statement, giving details on the matter and what these ‘dealings’ entailed.
A spokesperson for GMCA confirmed that Burnham had a ‘formal meeting’ with Man City Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, back in October 2021.
The statement reads in full: “In October 2021, Andy Burnham, in his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit arranged by the Department for International Trade.
“In his capacity as Mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the Chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.
“Also during his time as Mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of Mayoral international visits.
“This included representatives from Manchester United travelling to Austin and Dublin, Lancashire Cricket Club joining a delegation to India, and Manchester City FC staff supporting visits to China and Japan.”
Featured Image – Lauren Hurley / Number 10 Downing Street (Press Image via Flickr)
Sport
Multiple arrests made for ‘tragedy chanting’ and police officer assault as Man City defeated Liverpool
Emily Sergeant
Multiple people were arrested over the weekend as Manchester City defeated Liverpool in a Premier League clash.
Merseyside Police have confirmed that a total of 10 people were arrested during the policing operation at Liverpool’s home ground of Anfield as they hosted Manchester City on Sunday 11 October.
One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police constable, five were on suspicion of tragedy chanting, one on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, two for affray, and one on suspicion of throwing items onto the pitch.
Police are now appealing to the public, and are particularly looking to speak to witnesses of the assault of the officer.
At around 6:35pm, as fans left the stadium, a police officer sustained a ‘serious facial injury’ during the arrest of a man on Anfield Road, and was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment but is now recovering at home.
Investigating officers are now conducting enquiries, speaking to witnesses, and analysing CCTV and camera phone footage.
Chief Inspector Leanne Hobin said it’s ‘extremely disappointing’ that an officer has sustained a serious injury while carrying out their duty.
“I hope the arrests send a clear message and act as a deterrent to others,” Chief Inspector Hobin continued. “Anyone who engages in this abhorrent behaviour risks ending up in custody and getting a criminal record.
“Despite the actions of a few, the overwhelming majority of the 60,000 fans in attendance behaved well and I want to thank them for their co-operation.”
Manchester City ended up defeated Liverpool 3-0 during the Premier League clash at Anfield.
Danny Jones -
16th August 2023 
