15 Years On From Preston Defeat City Play Barca With Guardiola As Manager

Manchester City play Barcelona at the Nou Camp this evening, with Pep Guardiola as their manager.

It marks a huge change for the club, who have come an incredibly long way since stuttering in the lower echelons of English football not too long ago.

15 years ago, on Sunday 21st October, City suffered a disappointing away loss against Preston North End at Deepdale and it's fair to say their team, and their fortunes have changed for the better since then.

In that 2-1 defeat to Preston in what would now be the Championship, City's team line-up is much changed.

The team that lost out in 2001 to a Jon Macken strike contained the following names:

Nicky Weaver

Richard Dunne

Lucien Mettomo

Danny Granville

Gerard Wiekens

Stuart Pearce

Ali Bernabia

Danny Tiatto

Dickson Etuhu

Darren Huckerby

Shaun Goater

All of the above players are no longer at the club. 15 years on, City travel to the Nou Camp to play the mighty Barcelona with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva in their side managed by Pep Guardiola.

Not a bad bit of progress.

Topics: Manchester City, mcfc, Man City

Josh Lawless

Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling. He has been published by Curzon Ashton FC, Late Tackle, Manchester City FC, The Mirror, Read Man City and Manchester Evening News. He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE. He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons, contrary to reports.

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