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The apprentice made his league debut for Manchester City … but that is the wizard who stole the show and sent City back to first place.
Phil Foden has announced his growing stature by joining the Blues team for a match not to be missed against Cardiff – and performing well.
But it was Kevin De Bruyne, who regained his strength after a tough season of injury, that illuminated the Etihad with a superb opening goal and a dominant performance.
And with Fernandinho back in the engine room and in an imperious atmosphere, City is in top form for the last weeks of the season and for Mission Improbable, a quadruple hunt.
Pep Guardiola warned his Blues players that they needed to focus entirely on this game and that their dream of winning four trophies – or five as he would like – is set for bedtime.
He did not need to worry as City set to work, De Bruyne's cranked stunner and Leroy Sane's second goal ensured half-time point gain.
The only stain was the loss of Aleks Zinchenko with what looked like a hock adjustment.
With Benjamin Mendy left out of the match for the match after angering the manager with an imprudent appearance at a disco in the early hours of last Saturday, and injured Fabian Delph, the options for the left back are diminishing.
What was presented as an ordinary league match before the excitement of Saturday's FA Cup semifinal and then a Champions League semifinal on the new Spurs pitch was reinforced by the arrival of the match sheets.
The inclusion of Foden, for his first start in the league, has allowed everyone to flourish, but the prospect is essential.
The rumor about the careful rearing of teenage girls by Guardiola has sometimes been ridiculous.
The fact that he was England's best player in the U-17 World Cup win last summer was destined to send his profile.
Reaction Man City vs Cardiff
But some have described the fact that he had not, until now, started a league match, as a waste of talent.
The fact that he is only 18 years old, that he still has very little manager and that he occupies one of the most difficult positions of all the Guardiola teams has been ridiculously neglected.
He replaced David Silva against Cardiff. At the same age, the brilliant Spaniard was on loan at Eibar, in the second division.
A loan for Foden was excluded, simply because Guardiola wants to see him evolve with and available for the first team.
Kevin De Bruyne, with whom Foden played, was already a first-team player at the age of Foden.
But he played in the Belgian club Genk – far from arguing a crucial league match for a team to conquer the title, and with him the almost mythical Quadruple.
And it was a risky bet for this one, regardless of the status haunted by Cardiff's relegation.
Foden was lined up alongside Fernandinho and De Bruyne – two players coming back from injury.
But fears that the midfielder is not cooked enough evaporate at first.
De Bruyne ran right in the first minute and collapsed into a center two or three inches from the crack of Gabriel Jesus.
The Belgian felt much sharper than for a while and he kicked it after six minutes.
The architect was Aymeric Laporte, slipping a precise pbad into the left channel and into the path of a red-haired trail.
De Bruyne was injured while waiting and everyone was expecting a penalty kickout, but he shot a left foot shot past a surprised Neil Etheridge in goals and in the corner. farthest.
There is a growing sense that somebody, sooner or later, would face all the frustrations accumulated in De Bruyne, after a season in ruins.
Poor old Cardiff was the first – and probably not the last – to be swept away by the breaking of the dam walls.
De Bruyne was everywhere, rushing into space, pbading through tight spaces and scolding Gabriel Jesus for firing, then hitting the post, while a four-to-two break had left him on hectares of land.
City was saving energy, but a second goal was needed, but just before the break.
Riyad Mahrez centered a cross beyond the congested surface of a hidden Jesus, and he cleverly kicked the ball into Sane's path.
The German pierced his shot in the scrum and in the far corner to open the two-goal cushion.
As was the case at Fulham on Saturday, the two-goal youngster prompted City to go down a notch and the second half went off like a practice session.
The extent of the city's dominance was such that Cardiff's first shot, after 75 minutes, and straight into the center of Ederson, was driving crazy celebrations among visiting spectators – and a slogan of You have your shot, now **** out of your home! "Bruises.
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