3️⃣ points as Man City beat Olympiacos to qualify for CL last 16 | OneFootball

Manchester City qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League after they beat Olympiacos 1-0 on Wednesday evening.

Phil Foden scored the only goal of the game as City beat their Greek opponents on a relatively easy night in Piraes.

Into the last 16

In the end, it was the points that mattered.

Manchester City are through to the last 16 of the Champions League once again, but let’s be honest, that was never in doubt.

Alongside Porto, Marseille and tonight’s opponents, Olympiacos, City were never going to be crashing out of the competition before Christmas.

But to do it with two games to spare, having won all their games so far, is nothing to be sniffed at.

City were, once again, professional in their job here and won with plenty left to spare.

Their determination to score one goal per game, no matter how many chances they create, is almost impressive.

But it was the win that counted and sees the Etihad outfit looking ahead to another knockout tie, and another chance for Guardiola to overthink their inevitable exit.

Signs of life

At this point last season Manchester City had scored 27 goals.

This time around it’s 10.

Not since the days of Stuart Pearce prowling the City dugout have they been this shy in front of goal and it’s clearly an issue that has been troubling Pep Guardiola of late.

Without Sergio Agüero City just aren’t the same side going forward and struggle to finish chances without their talismanic Argentine forward.

The Catalan tactician may not have been facing his most difficult opponent here but it was interesting to see how he had instructed his front four in Piraes this evening.

Raheem Sterling, in particular, was playing a different role tonight, acting as a second striker when the ball was on the left-hand side and sticking wide when it was on his flank.

And it was his brilliant movement and backheel that set up Foden for the opener on the half hour mark.

The signs of life are there.

Boy wonder

Sometimes one can be guilty of overhyping young players.

Phil Foden is only 20 and isn’t going to reach his peak for at least another five, six years.

But if there’s more to come from this lad, imagine how good he’s going to be in the middle of this decade.

After scoring a double for England last week, Foden was starting in a front four for City here this evening and was absolutely sensational all night.

His first half goal, a brilliant left-footed finish, was his 10th this calendar year.

And as Opta pointed out, not one midfielder in the Premier League has scored more.

But it wasn’t just the goal – it was the movement, the touches, the vision, the way he finds space and the link-up play with his team mates.

Foden is something special, let’s just not overhype him too much, ey.