Walker: City have now matured as a Euro force
victory over Derby County. But it was their home defeat to Preston that catches the eye in hindsight.
Campbell had given the Terriers an early lead after a superb defencesplitting pass by Lewis O’Brien, but Alan Browne scored twice in three minutes soon after the break to give the visitors a lead that Corberan’s side found unassailable.
Naby Sarr was sent off late on for a professional foul just to compound things, but this game is more notable for the trend it would set. It was the first of seven times this season that Town would take the lead and still end up losing, with a further three games ending up in draws.
No other team in the division has dropped more points after taking the lead than the Terriers (27), with Town also losing from winning positions against Bristol City (h), Stoke (a), Barnsley (a), Reading (h), Wycombe (h) and Middlesbrough (a).
Bacuna, Alex Pritchard, Adama Diakhaby, Danny Ward and – on the left wing in place of the now-injured Josh Koroma – Jaden Brown.
The Terriers boss perhaps expected to lose with a weakened side against such strong opposition, but the depths of their inability to deal with Dominic Solanke and Co. clearly caught him off-guard.
Corberan reverted to his best XI and picked an unchanged line-up for the next five games in a row despite the busy Christmas period.
Town’s results over that spell were solid, but it proved costly. The gruelling schedule and lack of rotation meant just four first-team players were fit enough to train ahead of the FA Cup exit to Plymouth, and Town added Mbenza, Hogg, Eiting, Sarr and Rarmani Edmonds-Green to their injury list in a winless January.
The Bournemouth game is also notable as the only one this season that Town have played in front of fans.
TOWN had won just one of their first 11 games after the turn of the year to plunge themselves into the relegation picture.
The side kept finding new lows, with that 4-1 win over Swansea standing out as a complete freak result either side of back-to-back defeats from winning positions against Wycombe and Middlesbrough, and a pair of listless displays away to Derby and Preston.
It was clear Town needed to change something radically, and Yaya Sanogo held the key. The former Arsenal man had come on as a late substitute against Preston, and his arrival allowed Corberan to set things in motion to play a more pragmatic safety-first style. The 1-1 draw against Birmingham was the first time we saw it in action, with Richard Stearman coming into the back three between EdmondsGreen and Sarr, Duane Holmes filling in for Toffolo at left wing-back, and Fraizer Campbell and Isaac Mbenza leading the line.
Town had played 3-5-2 before – most memorably in their 2-1 win away to Swansea – but never quite like this, and while the result was not what Town needed after Marc Roberts swiftly wiped out Campbell’s opener midway through the second half, it was a welcome shift towards a style that would see Town go five games unbeaten and pick up seven points that have proved the difference between safety and relegation.
THAT run of something approaching form did not last despite positive performances against Cardiff, QPR and Brentford. Town fell to their heaviest defeat for 34 years away to Norwich, were extremely lucky to escape with a goalless draw at home to Rotherham, and lost as expected to Bournemouth.
Still, the travails of the other clubs down at the bottom of the Championship meant there was a strong sense that one more win would be enough to all-but secure Town’s safety – and they got it at the City Ground.
Corberan’s side had actually started the game really poorly, struggling for any kind of fluency or cohesion over a dreadfully nervous opening 20 minutes.
But they calmed down, grew into the game, and deservedly took the lead just before the break after Aaron Rowe capitalised on a defensive error.
Juninho Bacuna doubled the lead with an unstoppably powerful strike just after the hour, and Town dug in impressively to manage the game and see off a belated Forest resurgence over the final 30 minutes.
With that, Town’s fears over the drop were all but banished – and though they soon descended to another nadir as a strong line-up fell to a humiliating 5-2 defeat away to Blackburn that we could easily write another 2,000 words about, their place in next year’s Championship is now formally ensured thanks largely to that win at Forest.
KYLE Walker believes Manchester City have finally proved their worth on the Champions League stage after years of underachieving.
The Blues reached European club football’s showpiece match for the first time by completing a comprehensive victory over Paris St Germain in their semifinal on Tuesday.
It marked another key milestone on a long journey to the top of the game that began with the club’s takeover by Sheikh Mansour in 2008.
This is the club’s 10th consecutive season of Champions League football but they had only made the last four once before, in 2016, and they had fallen at the quarter-final stage in the last three seasons.
Right-back Walker said: “This has felt like a proper Champions League. We have had tough moments, weathered the storm and in previous years we probably didn’t do that very well.
“That just shows the maturity and the togetherness that we have got as a team now and, hopefully, we can take that into the final.
“Let’s not get too carried away with ourselves, we have still got a final to go and win, but we are there and that is the main thing, putting this club in the final and making history.”
City were strong in defence and attack as they followed up their victory in the first leg against PSG with a 2-0 success at the Etihad Stadium. Riyad Mahrez scored in each half as Pep Guardiola’s side completed a 4-1 aggregate success.
PSG lost their discipline in the closing stages and finished with ten men after Angel Di Maria was sent off for a petulant stamp on Fernandinho.
Walker said: “You need your game management to be second to none because players on this stage are going to punish you. I also think you need a bit of luck.
“In certain situations, we put our body on the line and defended really well. We got goals when it was probably against the run of play but that just shows where we have matured and dug in.”