Manchester City embarks on 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 produced an exceptional performance which he crowned with two assists. The second of these came after a cut into the box from 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 crowd of the season”.
“I know my quality, I know my technique, and when I play with Foden, Haaland or Marmoush, it’s very important to give them good balls,” Cherki said after the match. “La rabona is my creativity… I do it 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, regardless of which part of the foot you make them with. Messi is the best player in the world and I have never seen him do 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, need to learn that.
“If it goes well, everyone is happy. Otherwise, you will be in trouble,” concluded the Spanish coach as a warning. Despite this reproach, Guardiola described 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 in the light blue jersey.
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