Pep Guardiola quipped that James McAtee is “lovely” after the teenager netted his first Manchester Metropolis aim.
McAtee, who has spent a lot of the previous two seasons on mortgage at Sheffield United, got here on from the bench to attain Metropolis’s fourth of their 4-0 rout of Slovan Bratislava on Tuesday.
It was McAtee’s second look within the Champions League, two years and 206 days since his debut within the competitors – that’s the longest hole between a Man Metropolis participant’s first and second outing within the competitors.
“We’re so proud of him, he’s lovely, and all the blokes love him,” Guardiola stated of the 21-year-old Metropolis academy graduate.
“McAtee moved rather well in small areas, made a implausible aim, had one other likelihood, and for him might be enhance, we need to make him really feel he’s a part of that group.”
Ilkay Gundogan opened the scoring for Metropolis within the eighth minute, with Phil Foden netting a second earlier than Erling Haaland made it 3-0.
“The group of gamers are implausible, we performed sport, numerous probabilities and the primary three factors of the competitors,” stated Guardiola, whose staff had been held to a goalless draw by Inter of their opening match.
“Win your video games will probably be sufficient. We obtained the primary victory to [move up] the desk a bit bit larger than we had been, so it’s good.”
4 – Manchester Metropolis have now received 13 UEFA Champions League video games by a margin of 4+ targets beneath Pep Guardiola, probably the most by a supervisor with the identical staff within the competitors (overtaking Alex Ferguson’s 12 with Manchester United). Dominance. #UCL pic.twitter.com/3suN9Bw1xW
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 1, 2024
Since his debut within the competitors for Metropolis in September 2022, Erling Haaland has scored extra targets within the Champions League than some other participant, netting 19 targets in simply 22 appearances for the Residents.
Foden, in the meantime, is one in every of 4 gamers to have scored in every of the final seven Champions League campaigns (since 2018-19) together with Robert Lewandowski, Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann.
And Guardiola thought final yr’s Premier League Participant of the 12 months was rather more like himself after a gradual begin to the season from his perspective.
“Made a implausible aim, simply handed the ball to the publish, at all times I say ‘Cross the ball to the publish, not shoot, and also you’ll have extra probabilities’,” Guardiola stated.
“Step-by-step, it’s coming again.”
Metropolis are actually unbeaten in every of their final 25 Champions League video games (W17 D8), the joint-longest run with out defeat in European Cup/UEFA Champions historical past, degree with Manchester United between September 2007 and Could 2009.
