Sterling on rise again as City take charge
THERE were oddities at the etihad: Manchester City scored four without playing particularly well and the man who could not buy a goal sent them within one point of knockout qualification for a ninth consecutive year.
raheem Sterling. Finally, raheem Sterling. It had been so long that he forgot how to celebrate, in a daze as ball met net and merely left wandering around the Club Bruges area before teammates jumped on him.
he had been on the pitch for three minutes with City only one clear and Bruges threatening to embarrass them. he waited at the back post, as he has done so often during Pep Guardiola’s reign. Ilkay Gundogan saw him, passing across the six-yard box and Sterling passed it back beyond Simon Mignolet. At 3-1, the game was done.
elegance in its simplicity and at this point Sterling would have taken one going in off his chin. Now, an individual who has been so integral to City’s dominance over the past few years must hope this acts as lift-off for his season.
Sterling wants more starts — he has said as much publicly — and Guardiola might be tempted to give him the nod at Old Trafford on Saturday because it was not just an easy finish here last night, it was his general demeanour.
Sterling was tigerish, someone with a point to prove. This was his first strike since August and only his third in his last 31 club appearances.
And City really needed it, too. They were not quite there for large spells against a Bruges team who fancied their chances. Phil Foden scored after a quarter of an hour before an unfortunate John Stones own goal offered the visitors a way back into it two minutes later. City were slack for spells up until the break, although improved significantly thereafter.
‘I thought we were sloppy in the first half and let them get back into the game,’ Foden said. ‘We got in at half-time and spoke about what was going wrong. The manager wasn’t happy. You have to take his advice.
‘We changed it in the second half and played better. We were better in possession and hurt them a lot more. Once we got the rhythm, we played our lovely football.’
Jack Grealish found a way into the game more often when drifting into central pockets and riyad Mahrez’s header, nine minutes after the break, saw this tie swing in a matter of seconds.
Bruges, who earned joy in behind City’s full backs, had Charles De Ketelaere clear, only for the striker to poke the effort wide. A bad miss and the hosts went up the other end and secured a second goal to reaffirm their authority.
Mahrez had sent a pass across the six-yard box for somebody to finish off, only to find that those around him withheld their runs. These things happen with no striker, of course.
Joao Cancelo — who assisted Foden’s opener — went scampering away to collect the now errant ball and sized up the options. Cutting in on his right foot, the Portuguese curled into a dangerous area, in between static defenders. Mahrez muscled in and planted a header past Mignolet.
‘honestly, I don’t know if we can play better than the first 20 minutes,’ Guardiola said on a period in which Bruges barely had a touch in their half. ‘It was really good, the transitions. The one time they arrived they scored a goal. Life is like this.’
Life might just be like that but he does have concerns. On the eve of the game Guardiola referenced that he was left unimpressed by his team’s defending during the 5-1 victory in Belgium a fortnight ago — and that criticism was met with more than its fair share of guffawing.
But it is fair to say that the Spaniard had a general point around a lack of intensity out of possession and the Bruges equaliser perfectly encapsulated that.
They were allowed far too much space from start to finish of their move, which ended in Bernardo Silva’s intercepting of a cross bouncing up into the face of Stones and into his own net. ‘Unbelievable,’ Stones tutted.
That goal spoke to all of Guardiola’s insecurities and these are not things you can afford when the worries of profligacy in the context of the dominance they hold in matches will not dissipate.
But they improved dramatically as the game wore on. Sterling and Gabriel Jesus offered extra energy off the bench, with both ending up on the scoresheet. Sterling has scored his so many times before, while Jesus strode on to the ball and placed it into Mignolet’s far corner in stoppage time.
With Paris Saint-Germain only drawing at rB Leipzig, City top the group and it feels impossible that they will not reach the last 16 from here.
‘People took the p*** out of me for saying this was more important than United,’ Guardiola said. ‘For Sky, the game against United is the most important thing, the big advertising. We’re pleased to be there, but today was so important.’