Sterling effort by Sky Blue

RAHEEM Sterling got a taste of what to expect this season but he also gave a glimpse of what can be expected from him after his $ 102 million transfer from Liverpool.

Less than a minute into his Manchester City debut last night Sterling tripped over the ball, drawing a bronx cheer from a section of the 43,134- strong MCG crowd.

Within three minutes he slotted home Kelechi Iheanacho’s ball after breaking AS Roma’s offside trap.

The 45- minute debut of Sterling, 20, and the performances of Nigerian Iheanacho, 18, and Portuguese Marcos Lopes, 19, was cause for optimism for manager Manuel Pellegrini and a club desperate to yield success from its academy.

The Sky Blues won 5- 4 on penalties after a 2- 2 draw in last night’s International Champions Cup encounter, with both sides experimenting although most of their stars featured at some stage.

Roma will depart Melbourne today and manager Rudi Garcia will be content with their two performances.

Though Saturday night’s clash against Real Madrid was lacklustre, Garcia’s reaction when Adem Ljajic equalised with a dipping 87th minute free- kick last night indicated that the tournament was far from a picnic.

Miralem Pjanic scored Roma’s first after eight minutes with a strike from 25m after a Gervinho layoff.

Iheanacho pounced on a woeful backpass from substitute Ashley Cole six minutes after halftime, and a top first touch gave him time to slot it past Morgan De Sanctis.

Both sides made 11 changes, but the fact that most were made at the break allowed the game to flow.