City Resilience Pleases Cotterill

Luke Freeman seized on an early mistake from Brazilian goalkeeper Matheus to put the Sky Bet League One champions in front with a well-placed 20-yard shot.

But Braga, who finished fourth in the Primeira Liga last season, benefited from a host of fresh legs after the interval and drew level through Fabio Martins 20 minutes from time.

“I’m delighted we didn’t get beaten at the end. We put a few young boys on and it was difficult for them, but we showed our spirit,” Cotterill told Bristol City Player HD.

“I thought there were some really good parts to our performance tonight.

“There was actually quite a strong wind out there in the first half but we played some really good football, which is not new to us.

“With it being pre-season and with the load that’s on the players, sometimes we didn’t play as sharply as we can, but I think that’s just general tiredness from overtraining and playing games on the back of it.

“To play [like that] against such an established team in European football is a great achievement for us.

“They made a lot of changes, which we obviously can’t do at the moment, so it was tough on the players.

“But the more 90 minutes we can get into them, whether it’s through planning or not, will benefit them later on. I’m really pleased with the players tonight.”

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