admin Rico Lewis showed what he can add to Manchester City’ssquad in defense and further development against Bayern Munich.
Dayot Upamecano must have been delighted to see Manchester City’ssquadlistempty. Erling Haaland.
The Bayern defender had to watch Haaland delicatelypasstheballto Bernardo Silva’sgoal at the Etihad last season after being occupied by Jack Grealish and then completely seated by the Norwegian in the secondleg. Champions League quarter-finals. These two games are not games he will want to relive.
What Upamecano probably couldn’t have foreseen was that he would be passedover by the18-year-old’s pocket rocket to help Manchester City find another way to score. If Haaland doesn’t catch you, it turns out that Rico Lewis will.
Ofcourseit’sjust a friendly match, buttheway you facethe big teams in the big arenas can still be a real test of quality and bravery. Lewis caught the eye of asimilaropponent in the US last summer, before impressing in August’s friendly against Barcelona to convince Pep Guardiola he was ready for action.
Lewis surprised many by earning a starting spot after the World Cup, and if there is any indication of his alarming ability as he helps John Stones find away out of defence. In midfield, the shock didn’t stop there.
Guardiola then let Lew is play asa No.8 infront of a defensive midfield, emphasizing that he could develop there, and against Bayern he excelled in that role.
There was a breakthrough from inside the box by Bernardo Silva in the final round against Bayern tocreate a shot for the Stones, and Lewis was even better soon after. Running from Kyle Walker’s pass on the right, Lewis pushedback Upamecano and, despite his luck, found Julian Alvarez in the box with as aveassisted by James McAtee.
To wrapup another stellar performance, the teenager thwarted Kingsley Coman’s effort on the edge of his own box latein the first half before pummeling Upemecano at the other end until City wereleftbehind. nearly scored a second when Yann Sommer lost.controlling the Bayern goal. Perhaps this full-back willbecome the box-to-box midfielder that the Blues have never known.
Wherever he plays,it’s a performance that confirms Lewis will be firmly in the firstteam’s plans for next season.Having madenumerous appearances and departures, his importance to the team will only grow as the versatile star can fill a number of positions.
City have raised hundreds of millions of pounds selling homegrown talent, but Lewis seemsinvaluable to them.
