CITY ARE NOT ALL RAH RAH Pep’s troops look mere mortals for 87 minutes until Sterling clogs minnows
SO Manchester City are human after all.
Just when it looked like they were beings from another planet after playing extraordinary football this season, they proved they are mortal.
Raheem Sterling’s 88th-minute winner did extend their record winning run to 17 games, but it was hardly a convincing display from City.
Yes, the pressure was off because they had already qualified for the Champions League group stages, and, yes, boss Pep Guardiola made seven changes to rest some of his big names.
But all that does not excuse this pedestrian display as they just about got over the line to claim top spot against Group F’s whipping boys.
The only bright moment apart from Sterling’s goal amid the gloom was a debut for 17-year-old Phil Foden.
Guardiola used the game to give understudies Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Yaya Toure a chance to take centre stage at the Etihad.
Instead they fluffed their lines to underline how reliant City are on their star players. With Guardiola admitting he cannot accommodate Aguero and Gabriel Jesus in the same attack, it was the Argentinian’s turn to start.
Aguero was hungry to add to his record goals haul and shot into Brad Jones’ arms before appealing in vain for a penalty when he went down under a challenge from Sofyan Amrabat.
He got closer and he arrowed a header from Kevin de Bruyne’s leftwing cross just over. It was disappointing from City and keeper Ederson livened up proceedings when he miscontrolled Jones’ punt upfield to give Jean-Paul Boetius a sniff of goal before the Brazilian snuffed out the danger with a great tackle.
Sam Larsson then curled a rightfoot shot just past Ederson’s far post to give Feyenoord’s wonderful travelling support at the opposite end something to shout about.
The home fans took their cue
from City’s stuttering display and the usually-rampant Blues struggled to get out of second gear.
Silva looked as nervous as a learner driver when he weakly side-footed a shot straight at Jones after great approach play by Sterling.
City’s ragged display was summed up with the mercurial Kevin De Bruyne unceremoniously upended Steven Berghuis just outside the box with a challenge Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris would have been proud of.
De Bruyne was rightly booked, the Feyenoord fans held their breath, but Larsson fired over from 20 yards out.
The Belgian playmaker looked more like his old self when he fired just wide before making way for Jesus. City tried to break the deadlock and Toure fired wide from a free-kick.
Feyenoord, who had lost all four of their previous group games and who are enduring rotten form at in the Eredivisie, grew in confidence.
Berghuis controlled the ball before unleashing a left-foot shot, which Ederson touched over.
That was a warning to City and Aguero should have settled it when he chested the ball down in the box only to shoot wide.
City needed a lift and Guardiola provided it 15 minutes from time when he handed England Under-17 World Cup winner Foden, the Blues’ first millennial player, his debut in place of Toure.
On came City’s future to replace City’s past.
Back to the present and Sterling clinched it for City when he exchanged passed with Gundogan to finish neatly past Jones.
Another City teenager, Spaniard Brahim Diaz, came on to replace Sterling late on.