He was the best player of the game long before he scored the goal that settled it. Raheem Sterling’s rebirth at Manchester City continues to gather pace and here his late strike took the attention away from another young Englishman.
As City laboured to what would have been a rather uneventful draw against the champions of Holland, it appeared that the only memory of note would be the debut of 17-year-old old Phil Foden. On as a late substitute for Yaya Toure, the young World Cup winner’s arrival felt significant. Out with the old, in with the new.
But with only minutes to go, Sterling changed the story of the night. The 22-year-old is enjoying an impressive season and here he took a lovely pass from full-back Danilo to ease clear into space and lift the ball over goalkeeper Brad Jones to win the game.
Raheem Sterling celebrates after scoring the winner against Feyenoord for City’s fifth win in five Champions League games
Sterling lifts his shot over Brad Jones to score the only goal of the game with two minutes remaining on Tuesday evening
MATCH STATISTICS, MATCH ZONE AND TABLE
Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Ederson, Walker, Mangala, Otamendi, Danilo, Gundogan, Toure (Foden 75), De Bruyne (Gabriel Jesus 64), Bernardo, Sterling (Diaz 90), Aguero
Bookings: Mangala, De Bruyne, Danilo
Goals: Sterling 88
Unused subs: Bravo, Delph, Silva, Fernandinho
Feyenoord (4-3-3): Jones; Diks (Nieuwkoop 72), Van Beek, Tapia, Haps; Ambrabat, Toornstra, Vilhena; Berghuis (Basacikoglu 82), Boetius (Jorgensen 70), Larsson
Bookings: Vilhena, Toornstra, Jones
Unused subs: Vermeer, St. Juste, Nelom, Kramer
Bernardo Silva’s heat map from Tuesday night’s match. CLICK HERE for more from Sportsmail’s brilliant MATCH ZONE.
It was a lovely finish, Sterling’s eleventh goal of the season and typical of the confident way he is currently playing his football. Last year it would have been unlikely that he would have tried to score the goal in such an impudent way.
With Shakhtar Donetsk losing in Napoli, City would have finished top of Group G with a game to spare even if they had not managed to break the Dutch team down.
But manager Pep Guardiola will cherish this victory nevertheless. It means that only twice this season have City failed to win and only once have they failed to score. These things matter and Guardiola played his own role in making it happen.
Aware that Shakhtar – the only remaining threat in the group – were failing in their own task in southern Italy, the City manager could have sat back and watched his team play out a scoreless draw. There would have been no harm done had victory not been theirs for once.
Pep Guardiola made seven changes for the Feyenoord clash from the Manchester City team which beat Leicester 2-0
Eliaquim Mangala on his return to the City team vies for the ball with Feyenoord’s Jean-Paul Boetius during the early stages
Former Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal was in attendance at the Etihad for the Champions League group stage clash
Sergio Aguero in possession during the first half at the Etihad as Feyenoord forward Steven Berghuis (right) watches on
But Guardiola wanted victory, wanted that 100 per cent record in Europe and that long line of ‘W’s after his team’s name on the form guide.
So he sent on Gabriel Jesus and he sent on Foden and he asked his team to exploit the tiredness in the legs of a team that had defended all night. At the death, a brave coach got his reward.
Feyenoord’s season has been disappointing after their heroics in winning the Dutch league last season. They are seventh back home and began Tuesday night rooted bottom of their group in Europe.
Here they tried to make a game of it against a City team missing several key players ahead of Sunday’s Premier League appointment at Huddersfield. This was, at least, a contest, just a rather unexciting one at times.
Sterling was one of four City players to retain their place from Saturday’s 2-0 Premier League over Leicester
Feyenoord’s Dutch midfielder Jens Toornstra brings the ball under control despite the close attentions of Ilkay Gundogan
Nicolas Otamendi slides in to challenge Boetius as during the opening half hour between City and Feyenoord on Tuesday
Feyenoord goalkeeper Brad Jones rushes out to claim the ball just ahead of City’s Portuguese midfielder Bernardo Silva
For City, this is still a great place to be. It took them years to acclimatise to Champions League football and for far too long the whole thing felt like a bit of a puzzle. But here they were playing their penultimate group game of 2017 knowing that they had qualified for the next stage already. How things have changed.
In the first half they started slowly and improved. Sterling, stationed on the left early on was soon in to his stride, as was Kevin de Bruyne. But others were slow to follow. Eventually City did work Jones as Sergio Aguero, Sterling and then Bernardo Silva brought saves of varying degrees of difficulty from the Australian.
At the other end, City goalkeeper Ederson was twice required to touch the ball away from advancing Feyenoord players. On both occasions, the 4,000 travelling fans howled for an infringement but on both occasions they were wrong to. Ederson had reached the ball first. Just.
Kevin De Bruyne started despite City having already secured qualification for the Champions League knockout stages
Aguero manages to head an effort towards goal despite being closely marked by Feyenoord defender Ridgeciano Haps
Aguero reacts after missing the chance to score his 100th Etihad Stadium goal during a frustrating first half for the striker
Berghuis rises to challenge City’s Brazilian defender Danilo during a goalless first half at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday
In to the second half and it actually looked as though City’s fire had burned out by the time they actually scored. There was pressure early in the half as Aguero and De Bruyne both shot over from good positions but City actually had Ederson to thank for a super save from Steven Berghuis with 20 minutes left.
The combination from Tonny Vilhena and Sam Larsson that played Berghuis in was actually the best of the night from either team and Ederson had to stand up strong to save from close range.
Foden’s subsequent introduction felt special and we hope that one day we can all look back on it as the start of something. As it turned out, Sterling turned the spotlight away from the teenager and that, in its own way, may actually have been for the best.
Aguero swivels and shoots towards goal but the Argentine failed to get his effort on target against Group F’s bottom side
Yaya Toure makes his presence felt in midfield on his return to the City team by keeping Sam Larsson at arm’s length
Toornstra reacts after his side missed a good chance to take a surprise lead against City in their Champions League clash
Phil Foden replaced Toure with 15 minutes remaining in Tuesday night’s contest to make his first senior appearance for City
Foden got an opportunity to impress during the closing stages of the Champions League group stage clash against Feyenoord
Sterling confidently lifted his shot over Feyenoord goalkeeper Jones after combining for two one-twos with Gundogan
Another City youngster, Brahim Diaz, came on for Sterling in second-half stoppage time as City beat Feyenoord 1-0