What happened…
City cruised past German side Borussia Monchengladbach with a convincing 4-1 victory.
The game had barely settled before Brahim Diaz’s first piece of magic. The Spaniard picked the ball up on the halfway line, nutmegged his marker and drove towards the Gladbach defence.
His pass was weighted to perfection for Rodney Kongolo and the captain took one touch before he was felled by Gladbach ‘keeper Langhoff. Lukas Nmecha fired the resulting penalty past the dive of the German.
City doubled their lead minutes later as Javairo Dilrosun’s run and cross from the left was met by Nmecha for his second of the game.
The Blues continued their dominance throughout the first half with Aaron Nemane and Demeaco Duhaney both going close to finding a third.
The Blues scored their third shortly before the hour mark as Nemane pulled the ball back for substitute Paolo Fernandes and the Spaniard’s shot was deflected past Langhoff.
There was a brief glimmer of hope for Gladbach as Alazar Yosef Milo found his behind the Blues defence.
That hope was extinguished moments later as Jadon Sancho converted Aaron Nemane’s sweeping cross to seal City’s victory as the heavens opened up and the rain began to fall.
What it means...
City begin their UEFA Youth League campaign with a comprehensive victory.
Simon Davies’ side will travel to Celtic on the 28th September in their next fixture in the European competition.
Man of the match…
Tosin Adarabioyo – Having not started a competitive fixture at any level this season, Tosin would have been forgiven for some early nerves or rustiness.
It wasn’t to be though as the 18-year-old dominated Gladbach striker Alperen Sahin throughout and carried the ball forward with self-assurance of a defender at the top of his game
How they lined up…
The under-19 rules meant some changes to City’s regular Elite Development Squad lineup.
Daniel Grimshaw made his first start of the season in goal. Demeaco Duhaney, Cameron Humphreys, Tosin Adarabioyo, Erik Sarmiento were the back four.
Sadou Diallo sat behind captain Rodney Kongolo and creative force Brahim Diaz in centre midfield. Aaron Nemane and Javairo Dilrosun flanked central striker Lukas Nmecha.
Subs: Charlie Oliver, Kjetil Haug, Jacob Davenport, Will Patching, Paolo Fernandes, Jadon Sancho, Isaac Buckley-Ricketts
Gladbach XI: Langhoff, Hoffmans, Abrosimov, Hanraths, Mayer, Benger, Schikowski, Ndenge Tsiy, Sahin, Simakala ©, Müller
