Pep poised for a perfect run

City closing on rare 100 percent group record after Feyenoord win

MANCHESTER, England - Pep Guardiola set Manchester City the target of becoming the first English club to win all six of its Champions League group matches after securing top spot in Group F on Tuesday.

Raheem Sterling struck in the 88th minute to give City a 1-0 win over Feyenoord which - combined with Shakhtar Donetsk's 3-0 loss at Napoli - guaranteed Guardiola's side first place in the group.

The Spaniard wants his team to finish the job by winning away to Shakhtar on Dec 6 and is mindful the Ukrainian club is still vying with Napoli for the one remaining last-16 berth.

"We respect the competition. We respect Shakhtar and we respect Napoli," Guardiola said. "We play to win the games and after we will see how we finish. We have one game left and we're going to see what happens.

"The important thing is 15 points. We are now going to finish good in Shakhtar and win the game.

"The draw, we'll see. Last 16, it doesn't matter which one. It always will be complicated."

Only six teams have previously won all six of their group matches: AC Milan in 1992, Paris Saint-Germain in 1994, Spartak Moscow in 1995, Barcelona in 2002 and Real Madrid in 2011 and 2014.

Guardiola fielded a side showing seven changes from Saturday's 2-0 win at Leicester and it took until the dying stages at Etihad Stadium for his charges to wear Feyenoord down.

Sterling swapped passes with Ilkay Gundogan before speeding into the box and neatly lifting over goalkeeper Brad Jones, his former Liverpool teammate.

Including its League Cup victory on penalties over Wolverhampton Wanderers, City has now won its past 17 games in all competitions.

Guardiola used the occasion to hand a debut to 17-year-old midfielder Phil Foden, who starred for England Under-17s in their march to World Cup glory last month, and a first Champions League appearance to 18-year-old Spanish midfielder Brahim Diaz.

"I want to say a big congratulations to the academy," said the City manager.

"All the club has to be proud to have two young players of 17, 18 years old making their first appearances in the Champions League.

"For the academy, all the guys who've been working for a long time, the scouting, to search for huge talents - I put them on the field, but the guys who have worked with them deserve credit.

"Hopefully they keep growing. They are still young. We don't need to speed up the process of growing.

"Today it's their first game in the Champions League. They'll keep training with us and keep playing. I'll put them on the pitch and we'll see in the future."

The result means Feyenoord cannot rescue even the consolation prize of a berth in the Europa League.

But after seeing his players almost succeed in shutting out the runaway Premier League leader, Feyenoord coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst could look on the bright side.

"When you compare this to the first game, when we were pretty useless (losing 4-0), it shows how far we have come," he said.

"Certainly we have met some challenging opponents. We have met the best teams in the UK, Italy and Ukraine.

"Hopefully we can walk away from the Champions League with our heads high."

Agence France-presse

(China Daily 11/23/2017 page24)