Saudis claim City scalp

Roberto Mancini: Piecing together his pre-season plans

Reigning Premier League champions Manchester City slipped to a shock 1-0 defeat to Al Hilal in their first pre-season outing in Austria on Friday.

Alabid Nawaf Shaker grabbed the only goal of the game for the Saudi Arabian outfit midway through the second half.

While defeat is always difficult to stomach for a team of City's stature, Roberto Mancini will not be too concerned at this early stage of their summer preparations.

Skipper Vincent Kompany was among a number of senior players who started against Al Hilal, although it was fellow defender Aleksandar Kolarov who came closest to an early goal.

Indeed, the Serbian was a useful attacking outlet for the Blues in a drab opening period, which failed to see the best of either Yaya Toure or Carlos Tevez.

Trialist striker Mario Jelavic was introduced at the break as was Kolo Toure, who has been the subject of interest from Turkish outfit Bursaspor.

And it was the Ivorian who had City's best chance to equalise, only to head a Vladimir Weiss cross over.