Manchester City’s pre-season campaign ended on a sour note when they were defeated 4-2 by Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart.
It was the home side that dominated the opening half, scoring all four their goals in the 45 minute period. It was Filip Kostic who opened the scoring 15 minutes in before the defensive excellence of Aleksandar Kolarov prevented City going three goals down, however a nightmare six minutes saw them ship three goals coming from Daniel Didavi and a quick double from Daniel Ginczek.
Stuttgart enjoy pulling City's defence apart
The second period was not a classic with Raheem Sterling having a half opportunity in the 65th minute squandered. Kelechi Iheanacho and Edin Dzeko managed to get goals back for Manuel Pellegrini's side in the final ten minutes, but the damage had already been done.
After a quiet beginning to the proceedings in the Mercedes-Benz Arena, it exploded into life when the home side took the lead. A long punt upfield was flicked into the path of Kostic who showed great pace to get between the two City defenders before slotting it past an oncoming Joe Hart into the bottom corner.
Defensive display poor from sky Blues
They could have easily been three goals to the good if not for the excellent defensive work of Kolarov, the ball was played into Christian Gentner who did well to flick it over a sprawling Hart but the full-back was there to stop his effort from crossing the line. Four minutes later he was at it again when a cross was missed by Eliaquim Mangala but the Serbian did well to prevent Martin Harnik from having an easy tap-in.
However, Kolarov could do nothing to prevent Stuttgart doubling their lead on the half-hour mark. Didavi enjoyed a good passing spell in possession with Florian Klien who played him through on the right-hand side; the German then did brilliantly to cut inside and place the shot through the legs of Hart and into the net.
It was Samir Nasri who had City's real opportunity twelve minutes before the break when he rounded keeper Przemyslaw Tyton but the angle forced him to cross which came to nothing, moments later the creative Frenchman was set up for the shot but his attempted effort goalwards was well over the crossbar.
Stuttgart again took control of the match and got their third in the 36th minute, it was a rather poor defensive display on City’s account as winger Harnik was allowed to hit a low cross into an un-marked Ginczek who simply slid the ball into the net.
A minute later Ginczek got his second and Stuttgart's fourth, again it was a poor defensive showing as the German was allowed to collect the pass and move freely into the area. Bacary Sagna attempted to prevent the shot with a sliding tackle but his efforts were not enough to prevent the goal.
Sterling the main man as he makes score more respectable
Very much like the first-half, it took a while for the second period to get going with Sterling having the first opportunity 65 minutes in, he was set up by David Silva with former Liverpool man curling the effort towards the far post, but it was just wide of the mark.
That was the only real opportunity of any merit until City got one back with seven minutes to play, again Silva and Sterling combined brilliantly in the build-up before the Englishman cut it back which was just behind Dzeko but fell brilliantly for Iheanacho who placed it into the bottom corner.
The final chance of the match came to City and managed to make the scoreline a bit more respectable with a minute to go, it was Sterling again who was causing problems running in from the wing before tapping it past the 'keeper into the path of Dzeko who had no problems rocketing the cut-back into the roof of the net.