Just got back, not sure what to say about the game really, just... wow.
I was a bit underwhelmed with the starting line-up, and was pretty worried about Traore and Vinagre being our wing-backs, thought City would seriously take advantage. Nope, not at all. Vinagre a bit shaky at times but both overall defended superbly, and especially in the first half the decision to have Traore as our wing-back was paying serious dividends as he was beating Cancelo (on his wrong side) every time.
Thought Nuno's gameplan worked perfectly here. Sat back yes, but we knew they had a vulnerable, unfamiliar defence and we were very alert and always looking to pounce on any errors that they made especially by Otamendi. Had some good chances in the first half and probably should have scored one of them, Cutrone's chance looked a bad miss.
City always looked threatening as expected but how many clear chances did they have? Not many. They hit the bar, Sterling had a shot well saved by Patricio, and late on after we scored Rui made another really good save from Jesus I think? Otherwise we stifled them pretty well, as well as you can expect from a side of this calibre. Save for one half-chance in injury time Coady marked Aguero completely out of this game, total change from being given the runaround by Tammy Abraham.
Traore went up top as City moved forwards - their line was so, so high by the end - and he was the perfect man to punish them. For once the finishing was on point, and what a time! Jimenez did superbly to set him up.
Disappointing to not see much praise for us online, everyone is saying City slipped up but nobody is paying attention to the fact Nuno's tactics had the beating of Pep and how well every player executed their role. Unbelieveable performance and everyone deserves massive credit, particularly after winning in Turkey just three days ago.
