It does not happen too often that top-flight European football clubs pause their campaign midway to play a friendly game. However, FC Barcelona and Manchester City have decided to do the same for a noble cause. The two clubs will play a charity match at Camp Nou on Wednesday to support a former assistant coach of Pep Guardiola's, with the match dubbed "A Great Game for a Greater Cause."
Both clubs have started their league campaigns with mixed results. While Manchester City were held back by Newcastle in a wild 3-3 draw on Sunday in Premier League action, Barcelona were blanked 0-0 in their La Liga opener before bouncing back for a 4-1 win over Real Sociedad. Nonetheless, as the two teams unite for a noble cause, they’re supposed to field a strong starting lineup.
But before going into that, one should know why the two teams are playing a friendly. The match is being played to support ALS research on behalf of former Pep Guardiola assistant Juan Carlos Unzue, who was diagnosed with the disease in early 2020. Unzue was an assistant at Barcelona from 2003-2010 and again from 2014-2017. He overlapped with Guardiola at the club from 2007-2010 before being hired away as the manager of Numancia.
All ticket sales and in-stadium match proceeds will go towards ALS research, with the game benefitting the Luzon Foundation.
Now, the next question is when and where to watch the friendly between FC Barcelona and Manchester City.
The match between Barcelona and Manchester City will start at 1 AM IST on 25 August (Thursday). While CBS Network will telecast the match live in the USA, the clubs’ respective premium streaming services will show the match live in India. Barcelona will make the match available via BarcaTV+, while Man City is making the match accessible on both of the club's streaming services City+ and Man City Re cast.
