Manchester City played hosts to Brighton and Hove Albion at the Etihad Stadium earlier this evening hoping to pick up all three points at home. Man City were the more dominant team in the first half and managed to get themselves ahead in the 44th minute courtesy of Phil Foden who scored with a tidy finish from close range. The Mancunian outfit went into the half-time break one goal to the good.
Both sides fought tooth and nail in the second 45 minutes but cancelled each other out. Raheem Sterling came off the bench to miss a late penalty as the contest finished 1-0 in favour of Pep Guardiola’s men.
Let’s take a look at how each Man City player fared during the clash against the Seagulls.
GK: Ederson – 6.5/10
The Brazilian goalie had to make one save during the game and cruised to an easy clean sheet this evening.
RB: Joao Cancelo – 7.5/10
Cancelo did his job well at the back and was a real threat in the opposition half. He was not afraid to stretch the pitch by making some driving runs down the right flank.
CB: John Stones – 7/10
The English centre-back dealt with the danger when required and performed well enough to bag another clean sheet at the Etihad Stadium.
CB: Ruben Dias – 7.5/10
The Portuguese defensive ace was a commanding presence inside his half and made some important clearances during the 90 minutes to restrict the opposition from finding the back of the net.
LB: Oleksandr Zinchenko – 7.5/10
Zinchenko made multiple interceptions throughout the 90 minutes but struggled to get himself involved in the final third.
CM: Kevin De Bruyne – 8/10
The Belgian midfield ace was not shy of having a shot at goal and caused all sorts of problems for the Seagulls defenders during the match. However, there was no goal for him today.
CM: Rodri – 7/10
Rodri did all the defensive dirty work in midfield and helped his teammates get over the line with the clean sheet in the bag.
CM: Ilkay Gundogan – 7/10
The German talent didn’t have too much to do defensively but was quite dangerous when making some late runs from midfield. He also retained possession well for his side at the centre of the park.
RW: Riyad Mahrez – 6.5/10
The Algerian international made a handful of decent chances for his teammates to score. However, he didn’t get too much joy in the attacking third and was subbed after the hour mark.
ST: Bernardo Silva – 7.5/10
The Portuguese attacker played with a lot of confidence as a makeshift centre-forward. He was a joy to watch at times due to his incredible dribbling ability and clever touches inside the Brighton penalty area.
LW: Phil Foden – 8.5/10
The Man City youngster kept his composure to score the only goal of the game just before half-time. The Seagulls struggled to deal with Foden’s threat during his time on the field.
Substitutes:
ST: Gabriel Jesus – 6/10
He hardly got a sniff at goal.
RW: Raheem Sterling – 4/10
Sterling came off the bench only to miss a late penalty. However, fortunately for him, it didn’t affect the outcome of the contest.
