Man City player ratings gallery - Two players score 7/10 but Haaland disappoints in 2-1 loss to Brentford

Manchester City dropped points in their final game before the World Cup break, as they lost 2-1 to Brentford on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola’s men weren’t at their best against the Bees and struggled to break down their low block, while the visitors did offer a threat on the break. Ivan Toney got both goals on the afternoon, with Phil Foden scoring for City in the latter stages of the first half.

Brentford started the game superbly and forced Ederson into two early saves. The first saw the Brazilian fly out and smoother Frank Onyeka’s shot inside the box, while soon after he made an instinctive dive across the goal to deny Toney’s first-time finish.

But Ederson couldn’t keep out Toney’s next effort. Ben Mee got the initial flick-on from a long free-kick into City’s box, and the striker who this week was left out of Gareth Southgate’s England squad, beat Rodri to the header and the ball looped into the goal over the head of Ederson.

Other than a few half chances, City failed to create any real openings of note until the latter stages of the half, when Kevin De Bruyne threaded a lovely through ball to Phil Foden, who powered a shot on target, but it was saved by David Raya.

Yet, at the second time of asking Foden found the back of the net. He connected fantastically with an outswinging corner which Manuel Akanji initially got a flick to. The No.47’s subsequent strike flashed beyond Raya before he had time to move, and crashed into the top corner.

City continued on top after the break, but found clear-cut chances hard to come by against Brentford’s well-organised defence. Joao Cancelo’s shot flicked just wide off the leg of Ethan Pinnock, while Ilkay Gundogan snatched at a shot and sent it over after a free-flowing move.

Foden also saw a shot fly over, while Rodri’s strike from the edge of the box after 71 minutes was well held by Raya. But it wasn’t all on-way traffic, and Ederson kept out a dangerous-looking volley from Toney, while Aymeric Laporte slid in to prevent the forward finishing from Rico Henry’s excellent cross along the six-yard box.

Cancelo’s shot saved was then saved on 77 minutes, while Raya held a vicious strike from De Bruyne in the latter stages. As the game entered 10 minutes of injury-time, Toney forced Ederson to stop his low strike.

The forward caused City problems all afternoon and it was the Brentford No.17 who got the final goal of the game from a counter-attack. Yoane Wissa led the 3v2 break away, and he passed to Josh Dasilva on the right, who crossed in for the waiting Toney to net the decisive strike at the death, although he did have an even later shot cleared off the line by De Bruyne.

Here’s how we rated the players.