Our 3️⃣ points after Manchester City win in Bruges | OneFootball

Manchester City bounced back from defeat to Paris Saint-Germain with an emphatic Champions League victory at Club Brugge on Tuesday.

Here are three things we took away from the Jan Breydel Stadium.

Phenomenal Phil Foden

It’s become fashionable to refer to certain players as a “cheat code” these days and it seems every top club has one.

City’s cheat code used to be Kevin De Bruyne but with the Belgian still searching for his best form, their most unplayable player at the moment is Phil Foden.

The 21-year-old wreaked havoc down the left flank when City drew at Anfield a few weeks ago before going on international duty with England and showing what brilliance he’s capable of in a more deep-lying central midfield role.

We saw combination of those two talents here tonight as Foden was given license to roam freely and as well as stretching the Brugge backline with his running, he also assisted the first goal with beautiful pass over the top.

Honourable mention also for 19-year-old Cole Palmer, who strengthened his burgeoning reputation further with the first Champions League goal of his career in the second half.

It looks like City’s academy might have produced the next Foden as well as the current one.

Who needs a striker?

Given how well Brugge played against PSG on matchday one, this had the potential to be a tricky game for City but in reality they dominated throughout and looked very sharp.

But that didn’t stop people wondering aloud on Twitter while the score was still 0-0 just how good this team would be with a prolific striker.

Tonight it didn’t matter, with João Cancelo and Kyle Walker both being rewarded for bombing forward with a goal each, while Riyad Mahrez played well and bagged a brace.

Those two full-backs are both superb at what they do even when they’re not scoring goals. Cancelo’s ability to cut inside onto his right foot adds another dimension to City’s attack while Walker’s speed, agility and intelligence is fundamental to how Pep Guardiola wants his team to play.

And performances like this make you wonder if City with a striker would actually be more effective at creating chances, or whether their output would be about the same.

We may have to wait until the end of the season to truly find out.

Is this their year?

What do City need to win the Champions League? It’s a difficult question to answer considering they have all the ingredients to win it and came so close last season.

Right now they look like a better team than they did last season but they may not retain the Premier League title, and it only takes a bit of misfortune in the knockout stages of the Champions League and they could be out.

Which is why using the Champions League as a marker of City’s success is a fool’s errand. They’re one of the best sides on the planet with a genius coach who keeps evolving, but top level football is so competitive that you’re guaranteed nothing.

They aren’t even guaranteed to get out of this group yet, and that’s exactly how it should be.