Barcelona fielded a largely second string side in the Gamper trophy, and found themselves on the wrong end of a 1-0 scoreline against Manchester City, despite a dominant second half performance.
Martin Petrov scored in the 28th minute to give City the lead from a counter-attack.
Guardiola brought on eagerly awaited signing Ibrahimovic in place of Bojan in the second half, and he came close to making an impact in the game.
Shay Given saved smartly with his feet from Ibrahimovic after 73 minutes and he was on hand again in the dying minutes to spoil the Swede's party after some neat foot work from Lionel Messi.
The former Inter striker combined with Thiago Alcantara once more but failed to connect when he had the goal at his mercy from about seven yards and City cleared the ball to safety.
Despite a stoppage time effort from Messi hitting the upright, City held on and emerged victorious to claim the Joan Gamper Trophy, becoming only the third team in 20 years to beat Barcelona in the annual pre-season fixture.
Barcelona 0-1 Manchester City
0-1 Martin Petrov 28'
FC Barcelona: Pinto, Montoya (Alves 45), Fontas (Henry 63), Puyol (Bartra 31) (Pique 63), Maxwell (Muniesa, 63), Toure (Tiago 45), Busquets ( Keita 45), Gudjohnsen (Jonathan, 45), Pedro (Messi 45), Bojan (Ibrahimovic 45) and Jeffren (Gai Assulin, 54).
Manchester City: Given, Onuoha, Kolo Toure (Ben-Haim 45), Dunne, Zabaleta (Garrido 65), Weiss, Ireland, Barry (Etuhu 70), Wright-Phillips (Trippier 80) , Petrov, Tevez (Bellamy 65).
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