SHENZHEN, China -- Manchester City are considering playing an extra preseason match after their International Champions Cup game against Manchester United was cancelled.
City boss Pep Guardiola also told organisers of the Beijing game that they should have taken more care to protect the "unacceptable" Bird's Nest pitch, which was the reason the game was called off.
Guardiola's preseason plans were disrupted after the cancellation of the United match, which was one of four preseason friendlies.
City play a friendly against Borussia Dortmund in Shenzhen on Thursday and Guardiola said the club are trying to squeeze in another fixture at their Etihad Campus before the Premier League opener against Sunderland on Aug. 13.
"Tomorrow we are so happy to finally play here in China. We are disappointed by what happened -- we need to play games," he told a news conference.
"We wanted to play against United but the pitch was not acceptable. Now we're happy to play this game. Maybe we play one friendly game next week in our centre. We're trying to look for a team from the Championship or League One. Maybe."
Storms were blamed for the cancellation of the game at the Bird's Nest Stadium but Guardiola said the fixture could have been saved had the playing surface been protected.
City sent out a groundsman to try to salvage the fixture but it was cancelled because of concerns from both City and United over player safety.
"The pitch was unacceptable. We don't travel all the way to China just for holidays or a training session," he added. "We came to play two friendly games so I think it was the first time a game has been cancelled here.
"They are looking for hotels, inviting players, but at the end, if the pitch is not good enough, all that doesn't matter. For them, the pitch doesn't matter, but for us it's the most important thing.
"All the players and the coaches want to play as well as they can. Maybe there was a concert on the pitch 10 or 15 days before. Our groundsman was there for 10 days to try to take care of the pitch. It wasn't the water, it wasn't the rain. It was just the state of the pitch.
"We have played in really bad conditions in our careers, but that pitch two days ago was impossible to play on.
"It wasn't just about avoiding injuries for the players, it was about the fans. They buy tickets to watch players of quality from City and United, but if we had played on that pitch, the fans would have said 'What is that game?' because it was unacceptable.
"The pitch [turf] would have moved two metres. Believe me, it was the right decision not to play on it."