The teams are on the pitch at Wembley…

Man City: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov, De Jong, Toure Yaya, Silva, Milner, Balotelli, Dzeko.

Subs: Taylor, Wright-Phillips, Adam Johnson, Savic, Aguero, Barry, Clichy

Man Utd: De Gea, Smalling, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Anderson, Young, Rooney, Welbeck.

Subs: Lindegaard, Jones, Berbatov, Park, Rafael Da Silva, Evans, Cleverley

The referee this afternoon is Phil Dowd.

The action gets underway

Young gets an early chance to swing a cross into the box after Evra’s foul. The danger’s cleared by the City defence.

Rooney’s first real touch frees Young to have a shot on goal. His effort is deflected out for a corner.

Rooney is able to head the corner back inside to the six-yard box. The ball pings around until Smalling’s effort is eventually gathered by Hart. A frantic start to the game as City take a few minutes to settle.

Lescott hears a couple of words from referee Phil Dowd after fouling Welbeck.

A season curtain raiser this may well be but there’s a real bite to this encounter in the opening minutes.

Both teams have settled into this now – far more cagey in the last few minutes.

Balotelli and Vidic square up after a tough tackle from the Serb. It’s enough to get the crowd going again and it’s City who have the free.

Ferdinand concedes a corner but City’s first of the afternoon sails past everybody from the boot of Kolarov.

Rooney’s new hair looks to have settled in as well…

Anderson isn’t happy over a tackle by Dzeko and both players are booked for a little post-tackle reaction. Unfortunately for the midfielder, he isn’t quite up to the shoulders of his City rival so there aren’t many handbags thrown at all!

Micah Richards is booked for a hefty challenge on Young. It might have been a different colour had too much more contact been made and Fergie is up stalking the sideline in response. Rooney blasts the resulting free kick well over but this looks like being a busy day for Dowd.

Another half chance for United. Plenty of bodies in the box but it’s a blue shirt that gets his feet to the ball first to knock it out for a corner. Dzeko is cutting a lone figure up front at the moment.

City stretch their opponents for the first time. Silva and Milner are at the heart of the move but the latter’s cross flies harmlessly across the face of De Gea’s goal with nobody following up for Mancini’s men.

City fans are up in arms after Balotelli is left rolling on the floor. Replays show that the striker managed to hurt himself though while trying a fancy trick that didn’t quite come off… He’s okay to continue, of course!

Just over a half an hour in now and City are getting more and more into this contest. United have had the better chances but the score remains 0-0.

Yaya Toure has been booked for have a few too many words in Dowd’s ear. The ref is now talking to Kompany after another poorly-timed tackle.

Nani takes a shot from the resulting free-kick but his effort deflects of Dzeko’s knee – leaving Hart scrambling to his right-hand post. Just wide for United.

GOAL – Lescott!

Silva hooks in a free-kick from the right and Lescott rises unchallenged to head past De Gea. Poor marking from United.

City on the attack again with another free-kick. Silva plants it into the wall and wins a corner but De Gea collects the follow up set piece with little difficulty.

City are keeping the ball well at the moment.

GOAL – Dzeko!

Dzeko picks the ball up well outside the box and lets fly with a screaming shot. De Gea would seem to have it covered except the ball dips under his hand. City 2-0 here.

Half-time: Dowd brings the first half to an end. It’s a long walk for De Gea to the tunnel – the young goalkeeper will be more aware than ever of the shoes he now has to fill.

Both teams can make six changes in the second half… plenty to play for yet.

Cleverley, Evans and Phil Jones are all on as Vidic, Ferdinand and Carrick sit out the second half.

City to get the second half underway

Five players booked in the first half – 3 for City, 2 for United.

Silva is now playing just in behind Dzeko with Balotelli out on the left-hand side of midfield instead of his more advanced role. Mancini protecting what his team has already?

Nice pacey ball inside to Welbeck from Cleverley. The former can’t direct it on target, however.

GOAL – Smalling

A wreckless challenge from Richards allows Young deliver a superb free-kick into the box. Chris Smalling escapes his marker (Dzeko) to flick the ball beyond Hart. Game on!

Young blasts a free-kick into the wall. The ball is all United’s at the moment.

GOAL – NANI!

Sublime passing between Nani, Rooney and Cleverley sees United back on level terms. A fantastic move and superb finish from the Portuguese winger.

Mancini has acted quickly – Gareth Barry is on for Balotelli.

Rooney has a half chance to put United ahead. Lurking on the edge of the box he blasts his effort to the right and wide under pressure from Richards.

Young will be a great asset for United this season if today’s performance is anything to go by. City are struggling to contain their rivals at the moment but there’s plenty of time left for either side to settle this in normal time.

Lescott makes an important intercept as Rooney races forward. Adam Johnson is on for Milner.

Rafael has come on for Evra, who doesn’t seem too happy at being asked to sit out the final 20 minutes.

Kompany fouls Young at the edge of the box after some lovely trickery from Nani. Rooney’s effort is blocked and, eventually, cleared though. Mancini also introduces Gael Clichy to the action -

Johnson lets fly from just outside the box and forces De Gea into a decent save. He’s getting some joy on the ball at the moment is the City winger. Interestingly, Rafael has kept the armband for himself since replacing Evra!

City under pressure again. A last minute clearance from Richards doesn’t get too far but Cleverley fires over after making a little space for himself.

Robbie Savage has been busy on Twitter. He reckons United are the team to beat, saying: ‘Utd so good going forward – imagine if they added a world class midfielder!!!’

De Gea punches a crashing header from Richards over the bar. Dowd whistle for a free out though – the City defender used poor Chris Smalling for a little extra leverage in his leap. Berbatov is on now too.

Lescott blocks a shot from Nani as the four minutes of added time are announced.

GOAL – NANI!

Dzeko misses a header to put City back ahead and Kompany misjudges the flight of the follow up ball to allow Nani nip in and put United ahead for the first time – in added time!

Kompany can only hold his head in his hands as Nani celebrates in style. A game of two halves at Wembley and it’s the league champions who claim the first trophy of the new season.

“We all believed until the last minute,” Nani tells Sky Sports.

Wayne Rooney credits lots of hard work for the win.

Two up at the break, Man City will have to reflect on their decision to sit back slightly and keep what they had at the start of the second half.

Vidic leads his United side up the steps of the new Wembley. They were awesome in the second half today – a warning for the rest of the Premier league.

Thanks for staying with us today on the eve of the Premier League season. If this game was anything to go by, we’re in for a cracking campaign of football.