Manchester City, Bristol City and a match made in goal gifs

It might have been trolling, but imitation was also the sincerest form of flattery from Manchester City’s social media team on Tuesday night, after they took a leaf out of Bristol City’s book of goal celebration gifs.

The Championship club have become well-known for posting elaborate gif celebrations when they score, and it was no different when they took the lead in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg. Bobby Reid’s 44th-minute penalty was greeted by one of him with a fire extinguisher, albeit this wasn’t the first time the gif has been aired.

But when Kevin De Bruyne equalised for the Premier League side in the second half, Manchester City’s social media team produced a gif of someone in a City shirt, their face obscured by an emoji.

Manchester City, who have 5.6 million followers on Twitter compared to Bristol City’s 153,000, were immediately hit with the age-old barrage of social media users urging them to delete the tweet.

And even the BBC got in on the act – with the Radio Bristol account that covers the Robins telling the Manchester club to get their own gifs.

The Bristol City gifs have been well received by fans because they have involved the squad carrying out bizarre celebrations that include Jens Hegeler giving himself a high-five, Aden Flint DJing with a pair of plates, and Reid cracking two cans together and pouring the resulting explosion over his face. People have made compilations of them for YouTube.

Jamie Paterson, who features in one of the gifs having an egg smashed on his forehead, told Sky Sports: “We’ve got great morale in the camp, great team spirit, it’s just a positive thing, a bit of fun, and it just shows our footballers in a different light.”

It also forces the players who score the most to be creative. Marlon Pack says Reid needs to come up with a few more ideas after having a great start to the season in which he has scored 14 times. Pack features in one of the gifs, ironing his own shirt.

As for the origins of the gifs, Adam Baker, head of communications at Bristol City, explained that the inspiration came from a link-up with the Bristol Flyers basketball team, who had had some success with gifs the year before. “Footballers are always competitive,” Baker added, “and they’ve got really competitive on this.”

In the last round of the Carabao Cup, where Bristol City beat Manchester United, the gifs even had a festive theme.

After a 2-1 defeat following a late goal at the Etihad Stadium – which Manchester City celebrated on Twitter in their more usual fashion – Bristol City will be hoping they get to post at least one more gif during the return leg, scheduled for 23 January at Ashton Gate.