Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola makes superb Celtic claim

Pre-season results don't matter a lot but even then, Celtic will take a lot of confidence from their win over Manchester City. The Hoops won 4-3 against Pep Guardiola. Admittedly, the Premier League champions were nowhere near full strength but the likes of Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Ederson, Rico Lewis, Oscar Bobb and more did feature on the day.

Kyogo continued his fantastic form in pre-season with another goal but the star of the show was Nicolas Kuhn, with a brace and an assist. Is the former Bayern Munich ace set for a breakout season? Luis Palma also got on the scoresheet.

Kasper Schmeichel made his first appearance for Celtic and proved himself to be a reliable presence in goal. It is safe to say that there was a lot to be positive about the performance.

Guardiola appeared to have been impressed with what he saw from Celtic on the day and went out of his way to praise Brendan Rodgers' side. As reported by the Daily Record, the Manchester City manager said:

"Many things I saw were nice. We created a lot of chances, we scored, we could not control the transitions well, because they are really good with the pace and quality they have. They had a better rhythm than us. You have lived through these kinds of situations in the pre-season and we are going to build from here. They (Celtic) linked really well inside. We didn't cover much well. But it is what it is. Sometimes it happens. I give credit for the quality of the opponents."

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola makes superb Celtic claim

Celtic are certainly looking much better this pre-season compared to the last one. Rodgers seems to have a system in place which the players are comfortable with.

It is worth pointing out that Celtic were solid towards the end of last season as well and did well to finish with a Premiership and Scottish Cup double. At some points of the campaign, it had felt like them finishing trophyless was a very real possibility.

Of course, there is a lot of room to improve this squad further. They need to make additions up top and potentially in midfield, depending upon the future of Matt O'Riley. And there has been talk of making an addition on the wings as well, but if Kuhn can perform like this on a consistent basis, that might not be required.