Sterling on target as City’s patience is finally rewarded
Even when it looked like the Premier League’s most formidable winning machine had come to the end of their long run of indomitability in Europe, they still found a way to win through an Englishman who is having the season of his young life.
Raheem Sterling scored his 11th goal of the season, a beautiful chip that finally broke the resistance of Feyenoord, the Dutch champions who are all but out of the current Eredivisie title race yet fought for what would have been their first point in the Champions League.
This was not the vintage City of the last few months with seven changes from the weekend and a lack of the usual fluency in breaking down opponents.
The debut of England’s Under-17s World Cup star Phil Foden looked decidedly uncertain the longer that City went without scoring. Nevertheless, a promise is a promise and manager Pep Guardiola put him on after 75 minutes for Yaya Toure before City scored. The teenager looked composed doing the simple things well.
Even before Sterling ran on to Ilkay Gundogan’s throughball to score, City had won Group F with a game to spare thanks to Napoli’s victory over Shakhtar Donetsk, the final stop in the group stages next month for Guardiola’s team. There is every chance that Foden and his 18-year-old team-mate Brahim Diaz, who got his Champions League work experience as an injury-time replacement for Sterling, will play in that game in Ukraine with nothing riding on it for City.
They play Donetsk on Dec 6 with a derby against Manchester United four days later. It seems inconceivable that Guardiola will take anything but a group of under-23s on the 12-hour round trip to Kharkiv.
The Spaniard said later that he would “respect the competition”. “We respect Shakhtar and respect Napoli. We have a lot of games, we will see what team we can play. Who knows what can happen.”
Shakhtar need to beat City to be sure of second place in the group with Napoli still in contention. As it stands, an English team have never won all six group games in the Champions League. One issue that was cleared up for City was Kevin de Bruyne’s potential suspension with a yellow card hanging over him. He was booked just after the hour and was substituted minutes later, which conveniently means he is suspended for the trip to Ukraine rather than potentially missing a knockout game.
Asked whether De Bruyne had, in the vernacular, cleaned up the yellow with a barge on Feyenoord’s captain Steven Berghuis, Guardiola simply said that if he had done he would have hoped the Belgian had done so further from goal. “It was a clear yellow card,” he said. “I would have preferred he made a foul away from goal, not [near] the box.”
Guardiola acknowledged the contribution of Sterling whose goals total this campaign is equal to his best ever season (his last year at Liverpool and his first at City). “You see he has a lot of goals, that’s good for him,” Guardiola said. “He is enjoying scoring important goals. Scoring goals is so important for our wingers and strikers. It’s good but I always say the same, he’s still young, still he can improve.”
Feyenoord had not won in the Eredivisie or Champions League since Oct 1, their only victory in the previous eight games coming against AVV Swift, an amateur side in the fourth tier of Dutch football in the domestic cup competition. Yet they looked well organised and determined, even if they only had 24 per cent of possession.
If anything, before the break Ederson had the more severe examination of the two goalkeepers. His counterpart Brad Jones, formerly of Liverpool and Middlesbrough, as well as various other English clubs, found that the efforts City did manage on goal were straight at him. Ederson, meanwhile had to come out to Tonny Vilhena, and bat the ball away from him a fraction of a second before the Feyenoord striker reached it.
When De Bruyne was replaced just after the hour by Gabriel Jesus, the Brazilian occupied the left side while Bernardo Silva dropped back. By now Feyenoord felt a famous
result was within their grasp and they warmed to their task. There was a shot from Berghuis, played in by Sam Larsson, that Ederson brushed over the bar.
With 15 minutes left, Guardiola beckoned Foden over to get his matchday shirt on and take the place of Toure. Foden saw enough of the ball to delight his father and other family members who were sitting in front of the press box. It takes a lot for a teenager to make it into this team of superstars, especially one who is still not old enough to vote, and this experience will signal to Foden and Diaz that their manager is serious about them having careers at City.
“Big congratulations to the academy,” Guardiola said. “The club has to be so proud to have two young players of 17 and 18 making their first appearances in the Champions
League. If the result had been more clear, it would have been more minutes. They are young talents but our squad is not too big. We will see what happens in the next games. Hopefully they can stay for a long time and help us develop the club.”
It was Sterling who won Guardiola the game, another Englishman who made his debut at any early age and has continued to develop. This is turning into his greatest season yet.