Gabriel Jesus was one of three players to have a goal ruled out as Brazil were held to a 0-0 draw by Venezuela in their second Copa America fixture.

The Manchester City striker was introduced at half-time, with team-mate Fernandinho following 12 minutes later, but was denied a match-winner after a VAR decision.

Replacing Richarlison, Jesus added fresh impetus to a Brazilian attack which, despite dominating possession, spurned several chances in the first half.

A foul in the build-up to a Roberto Firmino goal had already prevented the hosts from opening their account and it was the Liverpool forward who strayed into an offside position which led to Jesus’ goal being chalked off.

Brazil’s No.9 saw his initial 18-yard effort blocked – the rebound rolling into the path of the offside Firmino – who returned it for Jesus to slam home in vain from six-yards.

Earlier the 22-year-old curled wide from the edge of the area as he looked to make an immediate impact from the bench.
Ederson was an unused substitute on the night and the City trio’s frustrations were compounded after VAR showed a foul in the build-up to Phillipe Coutinho’s late strike.

Despite the draw, Brazil remain top of Group A with four points from their opening two games and will head into their final fixture with Peru on Saturday 22 June confident they can secure automatic qualification to the quarter-finals.

Sergio Aguero and Nicolas Otamendi are the next City representatives in action in the Copa America, with Argentina set to play Paraguay at 1.30am (BST) on Thursday.

Manchester City transfer target Rodri has told Atletico Madrid that he wants to leave the club to join the Premier League champions. A release clause of £62.5million is all City have to pay to get their man, but who is he? What does he do?

Rodri as the new Fernandinho (or Sergio Busquets)
Rodrigo Hernández Cascante, or Rodri for short (or Rodrigo according to Opta and WhoScored) is a Spanish international midfielder who turns 23 on the 23rd of June. A first choice for Diego Simeone, he made 37 appearances in all club competitions last season starting mostly as a midfielder in a central two for Atletico Madrid.

A tidy passer of the ball, Rodri had an 89.6 per cent passing accuracy in the opposition half in La Liga 2018/19, also creating 17 chances despite being a defensively-minded player. In terms of similar players, the most obvious comparison in the current City team is Fernandinho, though Rodri made 103 tackles (3.03 per game) compared to Fernandinho’s 57 (1.97 per game) suggesting he either does more off the ball or is required to win it back more often under his manager’s orders.

When weighted against Fernandinho’s Premier League statistics, it is clear there is room for Rodri to improve.

As a result of making more tackles, Rodri also concedes more fouls than Fernandinho, but in Pep Guardiola’s system the team would have far more possession than Atletico’s average of 49.3 per cent (City’s league average was 64 per cent) so this number should decrease. His passing and vision attributes should also increase when positioned at the core of City’s passing network.

Guardiola has always denied (or attempted to deflect away from) that he instructs players to commit tactical fouls but having a midfielder who has the physicality to do just that is important in the crucial holding role, particularly considering how many players City send forwards in attacking moves. Guardiola needs a midfielder who can get stuck in but, crucially, is able to move the ball quickly and accurately under pressure so that the ball never stops being passed at speed.

That is where Rodri would play. The two ‘8’ positions in City’s formation are required to drift, attack and create while the ‘6’ protects the defence, sets the passing tempo and links everything together in buildup.

Signing Rodri now gives Guardiola a perfect amount of time to help him learn the demands of the position in a very particular system and adjust to the physical nature of the league, all while using Fernandinho as an example of what is expected.

Rodri’s player profile from last season is similar to Sergio Busquets, the player who performed the ‘6’ role in Guardiola’s brilliant Barcelona teams.

Centre-back keen to play under Pep Guardiola

Manchester City are set to make a €95 million (£85m/$16m) bid for Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.

The potential signings of James Rodriguez and Hirving Lozano may force the Serie A side to sell a key player this summer, and City are keen to take advantage.

Senegal international Koulibaly would be keen to work under Pep Guardiola should the offer be forthcoming.

Sources have told ESPN that United are ready to renew their interest in Maguire, having failed to sign him last summer when Leicester put his price at £80m.

Sky claim that this time around the club won’t even name a price for the 26-year-old because they don’t want to sell — though that £80m figure appears again in the story, which would be a world-record fee for a defender after the £75m Liverpool spent on Virgil van Dijk last year.

Maguire has evidently got no major desire to move on, and only signed a new five-year contract in September, though Leicester are lining up Burnley defender James Tarkowski  as a replacement should it happen.

Every club likes to get the business done early in the transfer window and Manchester City are no exception.

“This organisation is a mature organisation,” the chairman said a few weeks ago. “We plan early, we execute quickly and relatively well.”

Two years ago they had already brought Bernardo Silva and Ederson through the door for a combined £80m. However, this summer look like more patience will be required for anyone waiting for new faces at the Etihad.

As the UEFA Nations League has shown, the hottest properties on the market are already well known. There have been regular reports from Portugal of the considerable interest in Joao Felix and Bruno Fernandes for weeks – even after City took the unusual step of completely dismissing links to the latter – while Matthijs De Light is quickly turning into one of the summer’s most tedious moves.

So much talk around players serves their agent and selling club best, and the Blues do not enjoy auctions. As Pep Guardiola has admitted, it is still difficult to convince potential signings when Barcelona and Real Madrid are in the mix while it is also harder to get value when multiple clubs are allowed.

That City are determined to negotiate the best price also adds to the waiting game. It took them until the second week of July to sign Riyad Mahrez last year despite him being identified as a key signing as early as January, but about £30m was knocked off the price in that time.

Manchester City Football Club is a football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The club’s home ground is the Etihad Stadium in east Manchester, to which it moved in 2003, having played at Maine Road since 1923.

Manchester City entered the Football League in 1899, and won their first major honour with the FA Cup in 1904. It had its first major period of success in the late 1960s, winning the League, FA Cup and League Cup under the management of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison. After losing the 1981 FA Cup Final, the club went through a period of decline, culminating in relegation to the third tier of English football. Having regained their Premier League status in the early 2000s, Manchester City was purchased in 2008 by Abu Dhabi United Group for £210 million and received considerable financial investment.

The club have won six domestic league titles. Under the management of Pep Guardiola they won the Premier League in 2018 becoming the only Premier League team to attain 100 points in a single season. In 2019, they won four trophies, completing an unprecedented sweep of all domestic trophies in England and becoming the first English men’s team to win the domestic treble.^[3][4] Manchester City’s revenue was the fifth highest of a football club in the world in the 2017–18 season at €527.7 million.^[5][6] In 2018, Forbes estimated the club was the fifth most valuable in the world at $2.47 billion.^[7]

Current Manager: Pep Guardiola

Current Owner: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

This is dedicated to all true Man City fans. And remember, we always have pride in battle.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton