Manchester City overcame Borussia Dortmund in a brilliant attacking performance at the Etihad Stadium in the UEFA Champions League.
All of City’s attackers were at their sharpest as Phil Foden struck twice, Erling Haaland scored yet again and Rayan Cherki bagged his first Champions League goal, with Waldermar Anton pulling one back for Dortmund before Cherki’s effort.
City moved up to fourth place in the Champions League group phase behind just Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Inter, ahead of their blockbuster
Premier League clash with Liverpool this Sunday.
Here are three things we learned as City beat Nico Kovac’s side:
Foden regaining his best form
With two trademark goals against Dortmund, it’s safe to say that Foden is back to his very best again.
After a disappointing campaign last year, Foden has started this season much sharper. He looks after the ball better and is finding himself in between the lines on the edge of the box more often – which is the area he thrives in the most.
His two goals, both terrific left footed efforts into the bottom corner, helped City on their way to a convincing victory, and earned him praise from England manager Thomas Tuchel after his recall to the Three Lions’ squad.
City are building a team to compete this season and beyond, and Foden is and will be at the beating heart of it.
Consistency over 90 minutes remains an issue
City had spells of complete dominance, but by the end, it got extremely nervy.
Dortmund were piling on the pressure, pulled a goal back and came close on numerous occasions to getting another, with Gianluigi Donnarumma making a few good saves including two consecutive inch perfect slide tackles to win the ball outside his box.
Eventually, Pep Guardiola brought Ruben Dias on and stuck him in the middle of a back five, which did fix things. Though it shou;dn’t have gotten to that stage; City were in cruise control and previous iterations of the team would be adding to their lead, rather than protecting it.
There was a big drop off, and I can only speak for myself in saying Feyenoord last season was fresh in my mind.
Against a better team such as Liverpool the Blues could well have been punished, so they absolutely need to improve this element of the game.
Wingers showing an improvement
A positive sign from the game was the first half performances of Jeremy Doku and Savinho.
Both had frustrating starts to the game but really came into their own towards the end of the half.
Savinho was finding plenty of space down City’s right hand side, and played a role in the second goal by driving to the byline and pulling the ball across goal, with Haaland’s strike coming just a few seconds later.
And it was the Belgian winger who set him up, with a trademark shimmy and low left footed cross for Haaland to whack home.
Both have struggled with end product during their time at City, but against Dortmund they were much better.
Savinho in particular has to become more consistent and fix his attitude (he was booked ridiculously for arguing with the assistant referee whilst the game was still going on behind him) but these are positive signs we’re seeing from City’s two young wingers.
