Manchester City is back, or at least that’s what it seems, on the eve of the return of the Champions League, a competition in which two immediate duels await them, the next two Wednesdays against Paris Saint-Germain and Bruges with the yoke of elimination at first of change. A much improved version of the team that suffered in November and December with an unexpected streak of fiascos, took the points this Sunday from Portman Road, the historic fiefdom of Ipswich Town. City has 10 points out of a possible 12 in the last four Premier League games, enough to anchor itself back to fourth place while waiting to see if Chelsea resolves the game delayed until Monday against Wolves.
0
Christian Walton, Ben Johnson, Cameron Burgess, Dara O’Shea, Leif Davis, Ben Godfrey (Axel Tuanzebe, min. 63), Jens Ctrabajo (Massimo Luongo, min. 63), Omari Hutchinson (Jack Taylor, min. 72), Jack Clarke (Jaden Philogene, min. 63), Sam Morsy and Liam Delap (George Hirst, min. 72)
6
Ederson, Rúben Dias, Manuel Akanji (Nico O’Reilly, min. 71), Matheus Nunes, Josko Gvardiol, Mateo Kovacic (Rico Lewis, min. 71), Phil Foden (Jack Grealish, min. 62), Jérémy Doku, Ilkay Gündogan, Kevin De Bruyne (James McAtee, min. 62) and Erling Haaland (Divin Mubama, min. 62)
Goals
0-1 min. 26: Foden. 0-2 min. 29: Kovacic. 0-3 min. 41: Foden. 0-4 min. 48: Jeremy Doku. 0-5 min. 56: Erling Braut Haaland. 0-6 min. 68: James McAtee
Referee Samuel Barrett
yellow cards
Matheus (min. 78)
The team coached by Pep Guardiola would, therefore, be on that frontier from which it cannot move away, the one that allows it to have continuity in the top European club competition. And you can be encouraged because the coach is beginning to recover men (Ederson and Ruben Dias, two of his defensive pillars, returned to the eleven) and to reactivate key pieces that seemed rusty: De Bruyne is finer than a month and a half ago and Foden, who He scored two goals in Ipswich and has five in the last three days, he is close to what he was last season when he was chosen without further discussion as the best footballer in the Premier. “Everything seems to have changed for the team and for me. It was probably our best game so far this season. We are picking up pace,” warns the English international.
Riding its two interiors, the current champion resolved in Ipswich. Solid at the back, hardly bothered in any set-piece action, and much more recognizable from midfield onwards. The laziness of the rival helped, returning to the Premier after 22 years, but far from their best times. The team that Santiago Bernabéu said had a soda name uncorked and used up all its gas in less than half an hour, just the limit at which it found itself two goals down, with Kovacic appearing to score the second. Before the break, De Bruyne and Foden, who had already scored the first goal, met again to finish everything. The rest was a process in which Guardiola saved his best players, gave the youngsters a field and to which, before resting on the bench, Haaland came to score his seventeenth goal in the competition and move just one behind Salah.
Guardiola believes that the team can play even better. And it seems evident that this is the case, but it does not offer bad signs before the visit to Paris in which they must add to avoid falling out of the positions that guarantee continuity in the Champions League. At least the Catalan coach feels that his team has stopped suffering on the field. “They are good footballers, they know their level and what they have done not so long ago. It’s not about winning or losing. You always have to enjoy it and it doesn’t matter if you are a professional or an amateur,” he said after the game before giving credit to his team: “Chelsea lost here…”. But the Parc des Princes is not Portman Road, Guardiola believes that the team can play even better. And it seems evident that this is the case, but it does not offer bad signs before the visit to Paris in which they must add to avoid falling out of the positions that guarantee continuity in the Champions League. At least the Catalan coach feels that his team has stopped suffering on the field. “They are good footballers, they know their level and what they have done not so long ago. It’s not about winning or losing. You always have to enjoy it and it doesn’t matter if you are a professional or an amateur,” he said after the game before giving credit to his team: “Chelsea lost here…”. But the Parc des Princes is not Portman Road.
