Rico Lewis became the youngest player to score on debut as Man City produced one of the most comfortable football results of the midweek action in the Champions League. Rafa Mir’s stunning first-half goal for Sevilla gave them the unexpected lead, but the 17-year-old right-back calmly slid in the equalizer. Kevin De Bruyne was brought off the bench by City in quest of the game-winning goal, and he delivered three minutes later by brilliantly assisting Julian Alvarez for his 12th goal of the year. After setting up Riyad Mahrez to seal the victory and help City take first place in Group G, Alvarez earned his second assist of the evening.
Erling Haaland, the team’s prolific scorer who missed time with a sickness and a foot ailment, was opposed by Guardiola and is expected to be available for Saturday’s match against Fulham. In their last two Champions League matches, City failed to score and had a dismal first-half performance. Both games ended in a scoreless draw. While this was going on, Sevilla posed the stronger offensive danger, and when Mir scored after 31 minutes, he had already had two chances to do so. Mir was given three yards of space from an Isco corner to loop a header into the far corner, which was very awful defending from the City’s perspective.
Before the interval, City attempted nine attempts, but just one of those was successful. At halftime, Guardiola changed his strategy by taking Jack Grealish off the pitch and substituting Rodri for another centre midfielder. Grealish was “the best player” in the first half, according to Guardiola, who removed him due to a combination of tactical and tiredness issues. Because of this, the two City full-backs were able to play more like wingers than inverted midfielders, and Lewis, who was born in 2004, scored the equalizer.
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