AVELLINO 0 CITY 2
Friendly
25th May 1979
attendance 30,000
scorers Palmer(20), Bennett(85)
City Macrae, Clements, Donachie, Reid, Booth, Bell, Channon, Viljoen, Palmer, Henry, Bennett – sub Deyna
Avellino Cavaliere, Romano, Bouratto, Boscolo, Cattaneo, Di Somma, Tosetto, Piga, De Ponti, Lombardi, Tacchi – subs Casali, Galasso
FROM THE PRESS BOX
REPORT FROM THE MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS FOOTBALL PINK FINAL 26TH MAY 1979
Manchester City turned in a hard working performance to beat Italian First Division side Avellino 2-0 in Naples last night in their second match in a four-sided tournament.
City, who two days ago disappointed in a friendly against Roma, were in better form against Avellino, who ended the Italian season equal on points with Roma and, like them, narrowly avoided relegation.
Roger Palmer, who came on for Deyna in the previous match, played from the start and opened City’s account after 20 minutes.
But in a match of little incident, City seemed content with their one goal advantage until the closing stages.
Bennett, who scraped a draw for the visitors in the Rome match by scoring in the dying seconds, repeated his late effort and put City two goals up with five minutes to go.
The 30,000 spectators seemed to regard the match as a curtain raiser for home side Napoli’s clash with Bayern Munich later in the evening.
Italian commentators described the first goal as lucky, but had nothing but praise for the second which followed pressure from Avellino throughout the second half.
Bennett out-ran his marker and wrongfooted the goalkeeper for a classic solo goal.
One Italian writer summed up City as a strong and consistent side while commenting sourly on Avellino’s “usual generosity.”