Manchester City qualified automatically for the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 as they eased past Galatasaray at the Etihad Stadium.
Erling Haaland got himself back amongst the goals and Rayan Cherki also scored as City qualified in 8th place, ahead of the likes of Real Madrid, Inter Milan, PSG and Newcastle United, who missed out narrowly.
The only negative on the night was an apparent injury to Jeremy Doku, who sparkled before going off injured in the first half, providing assists for both goals.
Here are three things we learned as City qualified for the next round:
Marmoush and Haaland – Pep’s latest tactical twist
Against Galatasaray, we saw another tactical tweak from Pep Guardiola that ended up working out exceptionally well for City.
In possession, Omar Marmoush partnered Haaland in an out and out front two. City’s number 7 was playing on the left with Haaland on the right – and both were constantly on the shoulder looking to attack space in behind.
Galatasaray’s natural response was to sit off a bit to deny them this space, which allowed the two “wingers” Cherki and Doku to play as two number tens.
Rayan Ait-Nouri and Matheus Nunes held the width, whilst Nico O’Reilly and Bernardo Silva held the fort defensively.
It paid off for both goals. Doku received the ball in a pocket of space and instinctively slipped it through to Haaland, as David Silva did so often for Sergio Aguero 10 years ago.
Haaland was making an inside run off the right hand side so the ball fell naturally onto his preferred left foot. He finished clinically.
The second goal involved the two number tens combining, Doku a bit wider this time finding Cherki, whose ability in tight spaces is second to none. He took a touch in a crowd of bodies and thumped the ball into the bottom corner.
Haaland is obviously the best striker in the league when at his best, and Marmoush is too good of a player to ignore completely from the plans.
Guardiola seems to have found an effective way to fit them both into his starting XI, which will be really effective in certain games.
Khusanov is developing into one of the league’s best centre backs
City’s business under the final years of Txiki Begiristain has earned some criticism from supporters, but not many can fault the signings Hugo Viana has made so far.
Cherki, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Nico Gonzalez and Tijjani Reijnders look like excellent pieces of business, but perhaps not more so than Abdukodir Khusanov.
The 21-year-old centre back is still remembered for his poor first 10 minutes against Chelsea on his debut a year ago, and he’s often viewed as a weak link by many commentators in the media.
But it’s quite the opposite. His only real weakness is that he can be rash at times, but even then, his extraordinary pace helps him get back into position if he overcommits into a tackle.
He’s come on leaps and bounds aerially, and he always had the physicality in ground duels. His passing is also very good, and in the last few weeks he’s improved his range, pinging a fair few diagonal long balls over to whoever’s on the left hand side.
Khusanov is right at the beginning of his City career. He’s improved a lot already in just a year under Pep, and I can’t wait to see his development continue across the next few years.
O’Reilly’s coming of age in midfield
With Rodri suspended and Nico only fit enough to play a handful of minutes off the bench, it fell to O’Reilly to do a job at holding midfield.
The academy graduate put in a really mature performance, and showed that he can be relied upon as an option there moving into the future.
O’Reilly’s best games for City have all come at left back, despite being a midfielder all throughout his youth career. He started as a ten, and moved further back to the point where Guardiola considered him as an option to play as the pivot.
I felt like the 20-year-old looked more comfortable in wide areas. It’s difficult for a man as tall as he is to be as technically sound and agile as someone much shorter like Bernardo, Cherki, Phil Foden or Rico Lewis.
But he’s getting there, and even adds a different element to those guys in terms of box presence, which his height and physicality allows him.
He was trusted to play as the main holding midfielder (with support from Bernardo) for the first time against Newcastle, then again against Galatasaray. Both times City have kept a clean sheet and O’Reilly has done the simple things perfectly.
City’s number 33 has a big part in the club’s future. He’s one of Guardiola’s most dependable players, and he seems to be going from strength to strength.
