Erling Braut Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne were both on target as Manchester City secured a 2-0 friendly victory over sister club Girona at the Academy Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Pep Guardiola’s side took to the pitch for the first time since suffering a surprise 2-1 home defeat against Brentford in the Premier League on November 12, their final game before the World Cup break.
The Spanish boss named a starting lineup mixed with both youth an experience, with De Bruyne and captain Ilkay Gundogan the only two senior City players out of 16 who returned after representing their country at the World Cup in Qatar.
Goal machine Haaland, who has enjoyed a period of rest and recouperation after Norway failed to qualify for the World Cup, was also in the first XI along with the likes of Riyad Mahrez, Sergio Gomez, Cole Palmer and Stefan Ortega.
City made a strong start to proceedings and opened the scoring in just the fifth minute when De Bruyne intercepted a poor past out from Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga before slotting a left-footed strike from just inside the area into the bottom corner.
The Premier League champions then doubled their lead in the 18th minute courtesy of a strike from none other than Haaland, who has scored a remarkable 23 goals in 18 competitive matches in all competitions since joining the club over the summer.
In classic, intimidatingly-simple Haaland fashion, he tapped home from close-range after latching on to a cut-back from Kevin De Bruyne to notch his 24th goal since making his City debut in August.
On social media, the jubilation among City fans was as conspicuous as the groans of envious dread from rivals, with a depressed Arsenal fan tweeting: “Here we go again. I miss the World Cup already.”
“Back to being traumatized my Haaland on a weekly basis I see,” commented another rival supporter, while a third wrote: “Oh God not this again haha.”
Man City fans meanwhile were loving what they saw, with one tweeting: “He’s baaack. Mr Inevitable,” and another writing: “I’ve missed him so badly.”
City are five points behind league-leaders Arsenal, but if Haaland picks up from where he left off last month there’s a good chance the gap won’t remain that large for long. First up, an EFL Cup clash with Liverpool on December 22, and then a trip to Leeds on December 28.
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