the times | Thursday November 26 2020 2GM 69
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four league games, in which City have
won only once. At 20, he must be
protected from burnout, but he is one of
the biggest threats in a squad that is
struggling for goals.
The 19th group-stage win of Guardi-
ola’s City career started with an im-
pressive number of forays down the
wing from Mendy, who had missed the
previous eight games with a muscle
injury. With Kevin De Bruyne out due
to fatigue, City’s creativity had to come
from someone else. Mendy’s runs down
the left flank dragged Rúben Semedo,
the Olympiacos centre back, out to the
wing, which allowed Foden to drop
inside and play as an auxiliary No 10
alongside Silva.
Foden was full of running. His tricks
were not bad either. One pirouette-like
turn and flick left City fans salivating in
front of their TV screens.
The England midfielder found Jesus,
but his path to goal was blocked. Silva
headed at Sá. Foden drilled a low shot a
yard wide. With a quarter of an hour
gone, the shot counter stood at 0-8.
A brief lull followed, but City soonfound their rhythm again. Ousseynou
Ba appealed for an offside that never
came but Sá saved Jesus’s shot.
The Portuguese goalkeeper finally
had to pick the ball out of his net 36
minutes in. It was a vintage City move,
one that harked back to Guardiola’s
second season, when his team were so
dominant. Gündogan lifted the ball
over two red-and-white shirts for Jesus,
who laid the ball off to Sterling. He
played a lovely first-time back-heel
straight to Foden, who drilled the ball
beyond Sá. The whole move lasted only
seven seconds. It was Foden’s sixth goal
for club and country this season.
Sterling fizzed a free kick over the
wall but Sá clawed the ball away with an
acrobatic save. More chances came and
went. Gündogan curled just wide.
Foden failed to get enough purchase on
Cancelo’s cross.
Despite City’s profligacy, there was
no reason for Guardiola to panic.
Olympiacos could not lay a glove on the
visitors, who brought on Sergio Agüero
for his first appearance in a month. Ko-
stas Fortounis tried from distance late
on, but Ederson remained untested.Olympiacos (3-4-3): J Sá 6 — R Semedo 5, O Ba 5,
P Cissé 5 — M Drager 5 (M Vrousai 66min, 6),
Y M’Vila 6, Pepe 5 (A Bouchalakis 71), Rafinha 5 —
M Camara 5, K Fortounis 7, G Masouras 6
(H Soudani 78). Booked Rafinha.
Man City (4-2-3-1): Ederson 7 — J Cancelo 7,
~J Stones 7, R Dias 7, B Mendy 7 (O Zinchenko 78)
— Rodri 7 (Fernandinho 76), I Gündogan 7
(T Doyle 86) — P Foden 8, B Silva 7, R Sterling 8
(R Mahrez 76) — G Jesus 7 (S Agüero 78). Booked
Dias, Sterling, Gündogan.
Referee D Massa (It).no effect on Derby fortunes
club’s four-man brains trust in the wake
of Phillip Cocu’s departure, and they
remain bottom of the Championship
with a single victory in 13 attempts.
Their confidence remains brittle and
they are without a goal for more than
seven hours. “It was a painful, chasten-
ing experience,” Liam Rosenior, the
coach, said. “I’ve got a group of good
lads, but we’ve got to learn very quickly
what’s needed to win games at this
level. There’s a real lack of confidence.”
The first goal was bundled home
from close range at the far post by Britt
Assombalonga, the forward the
beneficiary of a knock-down from the
Middlesbrough debutant Duncan
Watmore just after the half-hour. With
Steve McClaren, the former England
head coach and Derby’s new technical
director, a spectator from the stands,
Assombalonga might have secured the
match ball before half-time, sending an
angled drive narrowly wide before
curling a free kick off-target.
Middlesbrough’s second arrived in
the 71st minute as Matt Clarke turned a
Marvin Johnson cross into his own
goal. Johnson rounded off an impress-
ive cameo from the bench by curling
home the third with seven minutes left.
Middlesbrough, who have not
conceded a goal from open play in the
past six games, are up to seventh. Neil
Warnock, the manager, said: “Someone
reminded me I said I’d do somersaults if
we scored three. I might have to go back
on that promise now.”Anton Ferdinand: I wanted to hurt Terry
Anton Ferdinand has spoken about the
anger and mental anguish he went
through during the period after John
Terry was accused of racially abusing
him, admitting he wanted to “hurt” the
Chelsea defender when he was made
aware of what had been said.
It is nine years since Terry was
accused of calling Ferdinand “a f***ing
black c***” during Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat
by Queens Park Rangers.
Ferdinand, now 35, has spoken at
length about the controversy for the
first time in a BBC programme, Anton
Ferdinand: Football, Racism and Me.
He talks about his regret at not
speaking about what he went throughat the time. Terry was cleared of racial
abuse in a no-blame verdict at
Westminster magistrates’ court that
ruled the incident could have been
down to a misunderstanding, but was
banned for four games by the FA.
“When you’re not releasing some-
thing, where does it go?” Ferdinand
says. “I can stand here and be macho
and say I wasn’t traumatised, but I
actually was.” Ferdinand then recalls
the flashpoint during the match at
Loftus Road, in November 2011.
“John Terry was running and barged
into me, so I’ve run and barged back
into him,” he says. “We were just getting
into it verbally.
“I had no idea that anything had
occurred on the pitch. Everyone wasjust buzzing that we had beaten Chel-
sea. We were in that little corridor. John
Terry goes to me, ‘What happened out
there, geez?’ And he giggled at me. He
went, ‘Banter ain’t it? Bit of banter. Are
we cool?’ I went, ‘Yeah. Course we are.’
Shook his hand, embraced him and
gave him a little hug, as you do.”
Ferdinand reveals he was then shown
mobile-phone recordings of what Terry
appeared to be saying.
“I’m looking at the phone and rage
just comes over me,” he adds. “You
know when they say your blood boils?
It just hit me. I couldn’t believe what I
was watching. I felt hurt, but mainly an-
ger towards him. I wanted to hurt him.”
6 Anton Ferdinand: Football, Racism
and Me (BBC 1, Monday, Nov 30, 9pm)Martin Hardysecond-half goals from Josip Ilicic and
Robin Gosens. It means that Liverpool
are only three points clear of Ajax, who
they face at Anfield next Tuesday, and
Atalanta, who have a home game
against FC Midtjylland.
Klopp, however, justified the changes
as he again bemoaned the fixture
pile-up his side face and the
Saturday lunchtime televised game
against Brighton & Hove Albion that
has become such a thorny issue.
“We made five changes and it was
very important we did that,” he said. “It
didn’t work out and that is part of the
deal. Anyway, I would do it again.
Tonight the decision-making was
obviously not good. There was no
rhythm, the first half was not a good
Champions League group C
P WD L FA GDPts
Man City (Q)........ 4 4 0 0 10 1 9 12
Porto........................430 183 59
Olympiacos.......... 4 1 0 3 1 6 -5 3
Marseilles.............400 40 9-90
Remaining fixtures: Dec 1 Porto v Man
City; Marseilles v Olympiacos. Dec 9 Man
City v Marseilles; Olympiacos v Porto.Foden strikes to make
City dominance count
Shortly after Manchester City’s victory
in Piraeus, Pep Guardiola went through
a roll call of praise in front of the
cameras before he and his players
dashed to the airport with three valu-
able points stowed away in the hold.
First Guardiola praised his centre
backs, John Stones and Rúben Dias, in
his post-match press conference: “A
good couple,” he said.
Then came adulation for the front
line. “Bernardo [Silva], Phil [Foden],
Raheem [Sterling] and Gabriel [Jesus]
were all so aggressive.”
Guardiola said that his two dynamic
full backs, Benjamin Mendy and João
Cancelo, were “outstanding” before
commending Rodri and Ilkay Gündo-
gan for their aggression, too.
There was only one member of the
starting XI that Guardiola did not
praise — his goalkeeper, Ederson. The
City manager can be forgiven for not
doing so, however. Those who watched
this match barely caught a glimpse of
the shot-stopper.
This was the most one-sided 1-0 win
in recent memory. City had 22 shots, 11
of which were on target, while Olympi-
acos did not test Ederson all evening.
The Greeks did not touch the ball in the
City box until the 88th minute.
“Unfortunately we could only score
one goal but the team is alive,”
Guardiola said. “We were much more
aggressive. It’s not easy to play against
nine defenders.”
Guardiola was being diplomatic. At
times Olympiacos had all of their
players behind the ball.
Thanks to a quick, delightful move
finished off by Foden, City maintained
their 100 per cent record in the
Champions League and made it
through to the last 16 with two matches
to spare for the second time in
Guardiola’s tenure.
Two thoughts immediately sprung to
mind when Foden clinically dispatched
a shot beyond José Sá, the Olympiacos
goalkeeper. First, it reminded us of just
how special a talent he is. Second, it
made you wonder how much better
placed City would be in the Premier
League if Foden had played more often.
It does not seem a coincidence that
City’s worst run of the season has coin-
cided with Foden’s absence from the
first team. He has not started the pastPaul HirstOlympiacos
Manchester City
Foden 360
1
Foden celebrates with Sterling after his goal gave City the breakthroughto deliver
Champions League group D MB MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES
P WD L FA GDPts
Liverpool...............430 182 69
Ajax.......................... 42117527
Atalanta.................42 1 187 17
FC Midtjylland....400 4 211-90LAURENCE GRIFFITHS/GETTY IMAGESgoalkeeper Alisson from Gomez’s teasing cross with an hour of the match gone
4
Shots by Liverpool last
night, their fewest in a
Champions League game
at Anfield under Jürgen
Klopp. Not a single
effort was on
targetgame at all. It’s a deserved defeat in a
difficult game. We changed five times
and that always costs rhythm.
“I am afraid it could happen, not only
to us but to other teams as well. You ask
us to go Saturday at 12.30, which is
nearly a crime to be honest, but it is
nothing to do with that game tonight.
“It’s tricky to beat Ajax with all the
challenges we face in this country and
with all the normal challenges already.
My concern is not Ajax. We go in a few
hours to Brighton and play there. That
is the first thing we think about and
then we think about Ajax.”
James Milner, the Liverpool captain,
said: “It was a poor performance, pretty
flat, there were a lot of changes and a lot
of players who hadn’t played together.”Remaining fixtures: Dec 1 Liverpool v
Ajax; Atalanta v Midtjylland. Dec 9
Midtjylland v Liverpool; Ajax v Atalanta.