Try telling Rico Lewis this was a dead rubber. The Manchester City fullback was substituted late on and forced by referee Orel Grinfeeld to make his exit at the touchline furthest from the dugout. He didn’t mind. That only meant the standing ovation was longer and louder, as all four corners of the Etihad stood and serenaded the academy graduate whose first senior goal on his first senior start had equalised and provided the foundations for a comfortable 3-1 victory.
It had been a night ripe for City to experiment, hence Lewis’s inclusion, but it also came with the reminder of a long-established rule over the last seven years: that even just a moment of Kevin De Bruyne’s genius is capable of winning any game. Entering as a second-half substitute, he did not score the decisive goal that broke the back of this game but made it for Julian Alvarez with a special pass that, alongside Lewis’s special goal, made venturing out under a hard Manchester rain worthwhile.
