Tana Chanabut, third from left, heads the third goal for the All-Stars.

Man City begin Asia tour with a 3-1 defeat to Thailand All-Star team

English Premier League club Manchester City opened their Asia tour with a 3-1 loss to the Thailand Premier League All-Star team at the Rajamangala National stadium yesterday. 

Although the visit of the club had struggled to arouse public interest, there was an air of excitement prior to the match as a sizeable number of fans had gathered at the venue.

The atmosphere inside the stadium, however, lacked the enthusiasm usually associated with a game involving a foreign club, even as thousands of spectators filled into the stadium.

The cheering was intermittent, with just goal-scoring opportunities exciting the crowd. Had it not been for the drums and bugles, the match would have been fallen into a silent stupor.

The presence of City owner Thaksin Shinawatra seemed to be the only attraction of the evening as the spectators seemed more interested in watching him rather than the match.

Having put the home side under pressure, the visitors managed to open the scoring through a fine strike by Felipe Ceicedo midway into the opening half.

Heat takes toll

The visitors, however, failed to sustain the pressure as the heat began to take its toll on the players. The game was even stopped for both sets of players to take water on the sidelines.

With the visitors' threat petering out, the hosts put themselves back into the game when Tawan Sripan picked out Ney Fabiano, the only foreign player in the team, with a chipped pass over the visitors' defence, before the Brazilian lobbed the ball over the onrushing keeper Kasper Schmeichel in the 37th minute.  A minute before half-time, the home side went in front after young centre-back Benjamin Mee's error in the box allowed Tawan to take the ball past the goalie before firing into the empty net.

The Thai team completed the scoreline in the 73rd minute when Tana Chanabut headed in a Arthit Sunthornphit

free-kick.

City's three local players, Suree Sukha, Teerasil Daengda and Kiatprawut Saiwaew were brought on in the second-half.  Teerasil could have marked his debut for the Blues with a goal if the referee had not disallowed a headed goal from a corner.  

City manager Seven-Goran Eriksson dropped the hint that the three Thais might see more action during the club's Asian tour. 

"We should have scored more goals. It was good to see Thai players playing for the team and see young players in the team. 

"We wish to see them play more in the future. We still have one more match in Hong Kong and then we will go for holidays," Eriksson said.

The Swede refused to comment on questions relating to speculation over his future at the club. And when asked about his relationship with Thaksin, he just said: "Good".