Welcome to Miami

Will Smith once sang, or ‘rapped’ (I ain’t down with the kids), that Miami is ‘the type of town I could spend a few days in’… so naturally, we followed his advice.

Following a recovery session on Thursday morning after our International Champions Cup clash with Liverpool at MetLife Stadium in New York, we jetted off on the last leg on our US Tour: Miami – also known as the Magic City. Amazingly appropriate, I’d say.

Thursday’s arrival also meant our two senior squads were reunited, with Nick Cushing’s women’s team already soaking up the warmth in the Sunshine State for their own ICC tournament fixtures.

As you can see, they'd already enjoyed a pretty sweet visit to Portland...

READ: Pep praise for 'humble' City youngsters

WATCH: Two-goal bernardo hails teen City stars

GALLERY: Bayern Munich v City

Our first full day in Florida heralded a packed schedule. On the agenda: media duties, open training and a press conference, ahead of Saturday’s final ICC clash against Pep Guardiola’s former employers Bayern Munich.

Fun-filled Friday

Our players headed off to various shoots around the city – from Leroy Sane’s interview on his Extraordinary City Story at the Pérez Art Museum, to Aymeric Laporte, Brahim Diaz, Karen Bardsley and Mie Jans’ visit to Wynwood Walls, and Benjamin Mendy’s ‘family reunion’ at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science shark tank!

Welcome back, Benji!

Eleven of our young Blues on tour also took part in some hilarious quizzes for our City Kids App inside the hotel – lucky them, protected from the Miami heat!

With the fun and games finished, it was back to business and City headed to the Hard Rock Stadium to prepare for the following day’s encounter with the German Champions, watched by media, fans and special guests.

Guardiola and Claudio Bravo then held a press conference, sharing their thoughts on City’s pre-season preparations, Pep’s chance to spend time with old friends and our budding Blues on tour.

‘Soccer’ Saturday

The final game of our ICC adventure arrived on the final day of our US Tour: German Champions Bayern against our youthful City squad. Talk about a tough test.

Men's Team

Celebrating Beautiful Football

Having already suffered narrow defeats at the hands of Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, the young Blues were eager to finish on a high and produced a superb display – inspired by  – to clinch a stunning comeback victory, having fallen two goals behind.

Bernardo came off the bench, replacing the injured Lukas Nmecha levelled with his first senior goal after the restart.

The brilliant Bernardo completed the turnaround with another fine individual goal, handing City a deserved triumph for a very impressive performance, in which youngsters Luke Bolton and Eric Garcia shone. Laporte also made his welcome return from injury.

The result (now a tradition when it comes to games against Bayern!), proved the perfect end to a fantastic trip across the Atlantic. Although the majority of our senior squad were absent due to post-World Cup holidays, the budding Blues selected rendered a very encouraging account of themselves, providing further evidence that the future is bright… blue!

‘There ain't no city in the world like this!’