STUNNED Tommy Wright is ready to pit his wits against Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.
The St Johnstone manager was shocked to get a call from his old club looking for a closed doors game next week.
And at first he thought it was a wind-up.
But he’s taking his Perth squad down to Manchester for a Wednesday match against Sergio Aguero and company in advance of the Premiership kick-off against Aberdeen.
“I still have a few contacts at City from my time there as a player," Northern Irishman Wright said. "Even if the club is a completely different animal.
“It has been completely transformed. This is one of the biggest and richest clubs in the world now with one of the top managers. They want to be the very best.
“It is a fantastic opportunity for the players. Let’s face it, we will never get a chance to play Manchester City in a major competition as a group. And playing a Pep Guardiola team certainly wasn’t part of my plans for this season!
“It was an invitation we simply couldn’t turn down. It will be a great experience for us. We can only benefit from it.”
City’s build-up featured a penalty shoot-out win in China yesterday over German side Borussia Dortmund.
Wright said: “I believe Pep wanted another game in their schedule after the match planned with Manchester United in China had to be called off because of the weather.
“We are delighted that he looked to Scotland and to us provide the opposition. Both clubs will use their first team squads next week so we will face top internationalists drawn from around the world. We will embrace the opportunity.”
City were in International Champions Cup action against Borussia Dortmund in Shenzhen, China, last night, with goalkeeper Angus Gunn the hero as he saved three penalties in a shoot-out.
The 20-year-old son of former Norwich goalkeeper Bryan Gunn, who came on as one of eight changes at half-time, secured Pep Guardiola his first win as City boss after the teams were tied 1-1 at the final whistle.
Christian Pulisic's injury-time strike cancelled out Sergio Aguero's 78th-minute goal to take the friendly to spot-kicks.
After City's game against Manchester United was cancelled on Monday when bad weather left the pitch unplayable, Guardiola was keen to assess as many players as he could.
They struggled in the opening stages against the Bundesliga runners-up and after a quiet first half in which neither side created many chances, Guardiola swapped youth for experience with the likes of Yaya Toure, David Silva and Aguero coming on.
City looked much stronger as a result and Dortmund failed to keep up.
After 78 minutes, Alex Garcia's pass found Silva on his own and he selflessly played in Aguero for an easy tap-in.
That looked like being the winning goal but Pulisic found the back of the net in injury time after a short corner caught the City defence napping.
Angus Gunn stopped Felix Passlack, Jacob Larsen and Mikel Merino from finding the net and City came away 6-5 victors despite misses from Raheem Sterling and Garcia.
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