City U18s fall to first league defeat of season | OneFootball

City’s Under-18s suffered a first league defeat of the season in a 3-2 loss to Liverpool.

For a second successive league game, we found ourselves behind early on. Josh Sonni-Lambie gave Liverpool the lead with a close-range finish.

But our young boys in blue retaliated quickly, with Floyd Samba bagging his sixth goal in five games to draw City level.

Josh Abe turned from provider to goalscorer just after the hour mark, restoring Liverpool’s lead before Jake Wain made it 2-2 two minutes later.

Sonni-Lambie found his second of the afternoon with a composed finish on the brink of full-time, which left City with no time to find a third equaliser as we fell to our first defeat of 2025/26.

WHAT HAPPENED

Despite dominating possession for the opening nine minutes, a clinical counter from Liverpool saw the visitors take the lead.

Josh Abe made a darting run down the right before he teed up Josh Sonni-Lambie at the back post.

City constructed the perfect response instantly with a composed finish from Floyd Samba on the edge of the Liverpool box.

Full-back Jake Wain did well to spot Floyd Samba in acres of space and opted to play the ball low rather than a floating cross into the opposition’s area, something Liverpool had dealt with in the early exchanges.

We continued to dominate play, but the Liverpool;s organisation meant chances were difficult to carve out.

Our best chance before the break included great link-up play between Christian Dunbar-McDonald and Tyrone Samba before the latter found Lamb, who took his shot on the half turn.

But Lamb was denied by Bailey Hall-MacDonald, who also stopped the City No.9 earlier in the match.

In their first attack of the half, Abe fired the Reds’ rebound into the top right corner on 65 minutes after Sonni-Lambie was denied a second by Max Hudson.

City showed great tenacity and equalised immediately after the restart, again, with Wain thumping home from close range.

Reiss’ side continued to push for the decisive goal as we entered the final 15, but had to be mindful of the threat Liverpool posed on the counter.

Again, Liverpool regained possession deep in their half and hit City on the counter. A long ball over the top was nudged over Hudson’s head by Sonni-Lambie to see the visitors snatch all three points.

TEAMS

CITY XI | Hudson, Wain, Drake, Braithwaite (Barrett 75’), Tevenan, Miles, Midwood (Oliver 63’), F. Samba, Lamb, T. Samba (Holt 84'), Dunbar-McDonald (Parker 83’)

SUBS | Vickery.

LIVERPOOL XI | Hall-MacDonald, Conde, Ayman, Cisse, Clarke, Upton, Abe (Murray-Holme 83'), Hickman, Sonni-Lambie, Yeguo (O’Connor 79’), Forrester.

SUBS | Bernard, Owen, Wain.

AS A RESULT

City stay top of the Under-18 Premier League North, level on points with Manchester United who play later today.

UP NEXT

Oliver Reiss and our Under-18s hit the road for our next league fixture.

We travel to Stoke City on Saturday 25 October, with kick-off against the Potters scheduled for 11:00 (UK).

Live updates of the game will be available on X and Instagram @ManCityAcademy, with a comprehensive match report to be available on mancity.com and on the Official Man City App shortly after full-time.