Manchester City head into their Champions League duel against Real Madrid (Wednesday, 9:00 p.m.) after beating Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium, one of the revelations of the season. The duel had a clear protagonist in the figure of … Rayan Cherki. The French winger had an outstanding performance that he crowned with two assists. The second of them came after a cut in the area to defender Trai Hume who completed with a rabona cross headed into the net by Phil Foden. Cherki’s technical finesse brought the entire stadium to its feet and received praise in the media, described as “sublime” or “the attendance of the season.”
“I know my quality, I know my technique, and when I play with Foden, Haaland or Marmoush it is very important to give them good balls,” Cherki said after the match. «La rabona is my creativity… I do it in every game. “I play like a free soul all the time because it’s my life.”
Despite the general astonishment, Cherki’s action did not please his coach at City, Pep Guardiola, who tried to justify himself by making a comparison with Messi’s way of playing. «Cherki has a special and unique quality. Sometimes you love it and sometimes you hate it. I want him to make good crosses, and that means that they are effective, no matter what part of the foot you do them with. Messi is the best player in the world and I never saw him doing this kind of thing. I like simplicity, because I learned from Messi that mistakes are not made by doing simple things. These types of players, like Rayan, have to learn this.
«If it goes well, everyone is happy. If not, you will be in trouble,” the Spanish coach concluded as a warning. Despite this reproach, Guardiola labeled Cherki a few weeks ago as “one of the great talents” he had seen in his career.
The 22-year-old winger, who joined City last summer from Olympique Lyonnais, has 4 goals and 7 assists in his first 18 games with the light blue shirt.
