Johnny On The Spot: #NORMAL SERVICE RESUMED. The importance of this win in the scheme of things cannot be over emphasised enough. A lengthy injury list of club legends, post a second defeat of the 2018-19 campaign ahead of a combative run of fixtures into Christmas, The Blues simply had to deliver. Furthermore, this season’s Champions League is wide open. Winning Group F following that opening defeat to Lyon is a fine achievement. However, finishing first or second this year, you can expect to face strong opposition. Atletico Madrid, Schalke, Roma and Ajax lie in wait for us.
Match Day 6 often serves up none event contests but this enjoyable game transpired to be far from it. Pep Guardiola, opting for respectful game management in the closing stages, asserted at his pre-match presser that Hoffenheim are a dangerous side. This was borne out from the kick off and a predominantly youthful City side were slow out of the blocks. Coughing up possession far too readily, The Blues paid the price for a sluggish start by conceding a soft penalty to the Bundesliga visitors which was coolly dispatched. City responded by pressing higher up the pitch but Hoffenheim continued to threaten. The Centurions, untidy and unlucky in equal measure rattled the woodwork twice in the first half but worryingly, our forwards were afforded no protection from the reticent Swedish referee.
Pep-talk banked, City took the handbrake off in the second period following the tactical introduction of the jet-heeled Kyle Walker and served up an entertaining if profligate attack against defence show in which Julian Nagelsmann’s men eagerly played their part until the final whistle. JB’s Man of the Match is game changer Leroy Sané who inspired this victory, flooding spirited confidence through his young team-mates. Der Bomber delivered fizzing, sparkling classic wing play, constantly squaring up his opponent before tearing at him. Sign him up, Txiki.
The Etihad Stadium
UEFA Champions League - Group F
12/12/2018 8:00 pm
Attendance: 50,411
Referee: Andreas Ekberg of Sweden
| Manchester City FC 1894 | TSG 1899 Hoffenheim | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sané (45'+1, 61') | Kramaric (16' pen) | ||||||
| 31 Ederson | 1 Oliver Baumann | ||||||
| 5 John Stones | Walker 45' | 2 Joshua Brenet | Nelson 45' | ||||
| 30 Nicolas Otamendi | 15 Adams Nuhu | ||||||
| 14 Aymeric Laporte | 21 Benjamin Hübner | ||||||
| 35 Oleks Zinchenko | Delph 64' | 3 Pavel Kaderábek | |||||
| 20 Bernardo Silva | Kompany 85' | 8 Dennis Geiger | Amiri 63' | ||||
| 8 Ilkay Gündogan | 11 Florian Grillitsch | ||||||
| 47 Philip Foden | 16 Nico Schulz | ||||||
| 7 Raheem Sterling | 13 Leonardo Bittencourt | Belfodil 70' | |||||
| 33 Gabriel Jesus | 34 Joelinton | ||||||
| 19 Leroy Sané | 27 Andrej Kramaric | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| 2 Kyle Walker | 4 Ermin Bicakcic | ||||||
| 4 Vincent Kompany | 9 Reiss Nelson | ||||||
| 18 Fabian Delph | 17 Steven Zuber | ||||||
| 26 Riyad Mahrez | 18 Nadiem Amiri | ||||||
| 49 Arijanet Muric | 19 Ishak Belfodil | ||||||
| 55 Brahim Diaz | 32 Vicenzo Grifo | ||||||
| 61 Felix Nmecha | 36 Gregor Kobel | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 22 | Goal attempts | 14 |
| 8 | On Target | 5 |
| 8 | Corners | 6 |
| 11 | Fouls | 14 |
| 0 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 68 | % | 32 |