City beaten by Thai All-Stars
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Manchester City suffered an embarrassing 3-1 friendly defeat to Thailand Premier All-Stars at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok on Saturday.
Ecuador striker Felipe Caicedo struck his first goal for the Blues but the All-Stars responded with two goals in eight minutes at the end of the first half of what could prove to be the penultimate match in Sven-Goran Eriksson's spell as manager.
The hosts added a third midway through the second period in an inept performance by City which is sure to have further dismayed owner Thaksin Shinawatra.
Former Thai prime minister Thaksin is conducting a review which has resulted in speculation over the future of the former England boss, whose first season as a Premier League manager resulted in a ninth-placed finish.
However, City were on Friday awarded a UEFA Cup place next season after qualifying through the fair play table.
That European place could yet earn Eriksson a reprieve and enable him to retain much-coveted players like England defender Micah Richards - one of a number of first-team regulars who have not travelled on tour.
Thaksin opened a club store in the Thai capital on Friday and reiterated his desire to make City a global brand but the public failed to respond and the 65,000-capacity venue was sparsely populated for the so-called 'Super Match' - the first game of the two-match post-season promotional tour of Asia.
The Blues nearly paid the price for their nonchalance in the energy-sapping heat when Sarayoot Chaikamdee breached the offside trap before firing wide.
But City exposed the hosts' own frailties at the back to go ahead after 22 minutes.
Martin Petrov's deep cross from the left was knocked down by Darius Vassell to Caicedo, who was allowed to turn 10 yards out and tuck the ball into the bottom corner.
The All-Stars levelled eight minutes before the interval.
FA Youth Cup-winning captain Ben Mee was caught out of position in the centre of defence and Fabiano capitalised, latching onto a through-ball from Tawan Sripan to loft the ball over the advancing Kasper Schmeichel.
Mee's torrid first half was complete when he slipped one minute from the break to allow Tawan to coolly round Schmeichel and put the All-Stars ahead.
Caicedo headed against the crossbar from Kieran Trippier's right-wing cross before City's three Thai players - Suree Sukka, Teerasil Dangda and Kiatprawut Saiwaew - were introduced for their debuts with 26 minutes remaining.
Kiatprawut was out-jumped by Tana Chanabut nine minutes later as the All-Stars claimed a third.
Teerasil thought he had made amends for his compatriot's blunder but his header was ruled out for a foul and shortly afterwards he blazed over when clean through.
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Transfer whole squad to Man City looming..
=)
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Jamie must be so sad. Provided Jamie really is a fan of Man City.
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If your boss had told you he would be clearing out the whole of your department at the end of the year, would you still want to do OT to impress him?
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kelong one la
thaksin ask man city let his country win.
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seriously, what is the man trying to prove
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Man City is going to relegate next season la or another Arsenal? only only things is that they are all thailands