Opposed this Sunday afternoon to a very weak Ipswich Town team, Manchester City literally wandered before challenging PSG on Wednesday evening: 6-0 final score, three goals per half, and Pep Guardiola who can even manage the playing time of its players.
While PSG experienced a Saturday afternoon that was shocked in every sense of the word in Lens (2-1), its future European opponent Manchester City prepared very quietly for the big shock of Wednesday evening. Traveling on the pitch at Ipswich Town, Pep Guardiola's men were challenged for 20 minutes before playing very calmly against the premises of rare nullity. Present in the stands and a long-time fan of the club, singer Ed Sheeran can probably apply to join the eleven of the Tractor boys.
City's XI: Ederson – Nunes, Akanji (O'Reilly, 72e), Dias, Gvardiol – Gündogan, Kovacic (Lewis, 72e) – Foden (Grealish, 63e), De Bruyne (McAtee, 63e), Doku – Haaland (Muba (63e)
A first goal that collapses the opposing house of cards
For this Premier League match, Guardiola had his vice-captain Ruben Dias back after a month of absence and the Portuguese even played the entire match without any problem, in an armchair most of the time. After managing a few counterattacks at the start of the match, the Citizens played their football and, in three passes without even accelerating, they overwhelmed the local defense. Phil Foden opened the scoring from close range (27th) and Kovacic doubled the lead with a nice shot straight away (30th). Even before the break, Foden finished the match with a goal from close range, well served by De Bruyne (42nd).
-Well established in their 4-2-3-1 with De Bruyne as an inspired playmaker, the Sky Blues played the same way in the second half against an increasingly poor opponent. Doku took advantage of a deflected shot to score the fourth goal (49th) then the same Doku intercepted a suicidal pass from a local to launch Haaland towards the goal, the Norwegian having fun (57th). From the hour mark, Pep released three of his expected starters on Wednesday: exit Foden, Haaland and De Bruyne for Grealish, Mubama and McAtee. Barely coming into play, the latter scored the 6th goal with a header after a nice aerial ball from Kovacic (67th).
The end of the match will be anecdotal, between Tractor Boys who can claim to stay in L1 given the level displayed and a City who managed very calmly. Before coming to Paris, everything is going well for Manchester who were able to manage the score and the fatigue of their players. Pep was even able to revive two players, goalkeeper Ederson and Ruben Dias, and save a little for his winger Savinho who had been playing a lot lately.
