Three talking points from Manchester City's win against Shakhtar

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Manchester, Sep 27: Manchester City are in stunning form at the moment scoring goals for fun and were expected to steamroll Shakhtar Donetsk at the Etihad on Tuesday (September 26) in the second group stage game of the UEFA Champions League.

However, it was hardly a cakewalk for the Cityzens in reality. Shakhtar managed to frustrate Pep Guardiola’s side throughout the first-half but had to bow down to the sheer quality of the Sky Blues eventually.

A thunderous strike from Kevin de Bruyne broke the deadlock just minutes after the half-time interval. Then, Sergio Aguero missed a penalty to miss his chance of becoming the club’s record goalscorer but Raheem Sterling added a late second to ease his side to victory.

Here are three talking points from the game:

City miss a second left-back

Manchester City splashed out £128.5million on full-backs in the summer as part of their massive overhaul, but Benjamin Mendy’s knee injury left Pep Guardiola without a recognised senior left-back.

Fabian Delph was happy to slot in as the replacement for Mendy at left-back and did a decent job but he is not a traditional left-back at all.

Fernandinho, the unsung hero of Manchester City

Fernandinho is City’s unsung hero, sacrificing himself for the team. He has the quality to play higher up the pitch but happily, plays the holding role to give the likes of de Bruyne and Silva license to get forward.

He did it again and he shielded his defence, making a goal-saving tackle on Fred when City were under the cosh in the first half. He was outstanding and gave City’s attacking talent the platform they needed with Shakhtar looking so impressive to make the breakthrough.

Kevin De Bruyne is the magician of Etihad

What an amazing player De Bruyne is! The Belgian attacking midfielder can unlock any defence in the world with his passing and is blessed with a sensational ability of crossing. Yesterday, it was the sheer brilliance of De Bruyne’s shooting ability that was needed to give City the lead.

The Belgian showed great anticipation to win the ball and launch City’s counter-attack. Then when he received the ball back from David Silva, he curled a lovely right-foot effort inside the post form 25 yards out.