Man City lost their first game on Saturday to Pirates who scored through Lucas Thwala and Phenyo Mongalo. The English side which has been in the news of late for big signings of players like Carlos Tevez from Manchester United, Roque Santa Cruz from Blackburn Rovers and Gareth Barry from Aston Villa failed to shine in the game.

But they played without some key players among them Tevez and Brazilians Robinho and Elano who participated in the Confederations Cup last month in South Africa. Manchester City’s coach Mark Hughes was quoted by the BBC as saying that it was too dangerous to field Tevez and Santa Cruz as they lacked fitness. Zimbabwean Benjani Mwaruwari played for City.

The match which was played in Polokwane gave an opportunity to both teams’ coaches to try out new signings. Pirates scored their first goal in the 36th minute from a penalty spot before substitute Mongalo made it 2-0 in the 56th minute with a brilliant strike.

The English side who are participating in the tournament for the first time face Kaizer Chiefs on Tuesday in Durban before meeting the winners of a play-off between Chiefs and Pirates in the final next Saturday in Pretoria.

Their rival Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspurs have also participated in the Vodacom Challenge. Meanwhile, Manchester City have signed Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor from Arsenal for a five year deal.

The 25 year old Adebayor who joins the other signings is reported to have been signed at a fee of 25 million pounds.