Five Things We Learned: Olympiacos 0-1 Manchester City (Champions League)

Manchester City secured qualification to the Champions League Round of 16 with last nights 1-0 win against Olympiacos. Phil Foden’s strike on the half-hour mark was enough to beat an opposing team who didn’t manage a single shot on target.

Here’s five things we learned from the game…

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Qualification secured

For the eighth season in a row, Manchester City have secured qualification out of the group stage. The task for Pep Guardiola and his squad now is to take it to the next level and go further than we’ve done before under the Catalan boss. The constant quarter-final elimination has got to stop and if we can overcome that particular mental barrier, we have every chance of winning the whole thing.

Qualifying early also gives Guardiola a great chance to rest key players in the two remaining match-weeks and keep them fresh for other competitions. We already saw on Wednesday night, without Kevin De Bruyne and Kyle Walker, the rest of the squad is more than capable of seeing out these type of games. 

(Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images) Phil HAS to start more – obviously!

Stating the obvious here, but Phil Foden is by far our second-best central midfield option at the moment. Bar Kevin De Bruyne, no other midfielder in our squad produces the attacking threat he does and he needs to be rewarded for his good performances.

Even with his goal, he had the goalscoring sense to know if he got into the right position, Sterling had the ability to pick him out. If he started every week, I have no doubt the kid dubbed the ‘Stockport Iniesta’ would pick up at least 10+ goals a season. 

Simply, he should be the first name on the teamsheet against Burnley.

(Photo by ARIS MESSINIS / AFP) Important game time for Mendy and Stones 

It was massively important for John Stones and Benjamin Mendy to get a good amount of gametime in Greece. With a gruelling schedule of fixtures coming up, both players are going to be massively important. 

I thought on the whole, they both had really solid games. Mendy was replaced understandably by Oleksandr Zinchenko with just 20 minutes remaining after returning from injury, while Stones completed a full 90.

The Englishman in particular looked very composed alongside Ruben Dias and kept everything ticking in what was a constant Manchester City attack. Mendy, at times, showed threat down the left, but his all-round play was again, very tidy.

(Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images) Dias is getting better game by game 

I think the biggest compliment I can give Ruben Dias at the moment is I don’t even notice he’s there. Manchester City’s newest signing has fit into this side like a glove and every partner he’s played alongside has seemingly benefitted from that.

On countless occasions in tough areas on Wednesday night, the Portuguese defender was able to manoeuvre and neutralise any sort of danger Olympiacos posed. It was an assured and professional performance from one of my standouts of the season so far.

(Photo by ARIS MESSINIS / AFP) Still not scoring goals 

Now, I’ve told you about the good bits, but lets not shy away from the obvious – we’re still not scoring goals. 

It’s frustrating to see 22 shots not converted into more than one goal, and it’s an issue that needs to be resolved quickly. I think we were quite lucky that Olympiacos settled for only a one goal defeat, and against any other team, we could’ve been heading for more dropped points.

Some of the personnel changes seemed to be creating more opportunities to get shots on goal, but it’s more often than not that the final pass or finish is what is letting us down. 

(Photo by ARIS MESSINIS / AFP)

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You can follow Harry on Twitter here: @harryasiddall

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