Source: Team_Talk
City up and running with easy win
Manchester City began their pre-season campaign with a 3-0 victory over the Portland Timbers on Saturday evening in the United States.[LNB] Roberto Mancini named almost entirely different sides for the two 45 minutes in Oregon - only Greg Cunningham stayed on after the break - with Joe Hart starting his first City game in over a year.[LNB]Steven Ireland scored from a Michael Johnson cross a minute before half-time to give the Premier League outfit the league and Emmanuel Adebayor headed in a second shortly after to make it 2-0 at the break.[LNB]Jo rattled in a third in the 68th minute to earn City a comfortable victory ahead of Friday's tougher test against Sporting Lisbon in New York.[LNB]Mancini was simply happy to see his key players come through the game unscathed.[LNB]"The main thing is that we came through without any serious injuries and that is important," he told the official website.[LNB]"I am sure the players were glad to get into action after two weeks of hard work and I thought we did well against a side that is progressing in the United States and which was well prepared and fought hard all night.[LNB]"It was good for the young players to show what they could do. We used the defensive ones in the first half and the midfielders and strikers in the second half.[LNB]"This was only a first step but a big one on the way to the start of the Premier League season."[LNB]Starting XI: Hart, Trippier, Boyata, Mee, Cunningham, Ireland, Zabaleta, A Johnson, Vieira, Bellamy, Adebayor.[LNB]Second Half - Taylor, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Cunningham (Bridge), Tutte, Kay (Onuoha), Ibrahim, Helan, Guidetti (Tchuimeni-Nimely), Jo.
