Pep poised for a perfect run

17-year-old midfielder Phil Foden, who starred for England Under-17s in their march to World Cup glory last month, and a first Champions League appearance to 18-year-old Spanish midfielder Brahim Diaz.

“I want to say a big congratulations to the academy,” said the City manager.

“All the club has to be proud to have two young players of 17, 18 years old making their first appearances in the Champions League.

“For the academy, all the guys who’ve been working for a long time, the scouting, to search for huge talents — I put them on the field, but the guys who have worked with them deserve credit.

“Hopefully they keep growing. They are still young. We don’t need to speed up the process of growing.

“Today it’s their first game in the Champions League. They’ll keep training with us and keep playing. I’ll put them on the pitch and we’ll see in the future.”

The result means Feyenoord cannot rescue even the consolation prize of a berth in the Europa League.

But after seeing his players almost succeed in shutting out the runaway Premier League leader, Feyenoord coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst could look on the bright side.

“When you compare this to the first game, when we were pretty useless (losing 4-0), it shows how far we have come,” he said.

“Certainly we have met some challenging opponents. We have met the best teams in the UK, Italy and Ukraine.

“Hopefully we can walk away from the Champions League with our heads high.”