Manchester City are just getting ridiculous now. Have a team ever been this close to perfection? Sporting Clube de Portugal can testify to the fact they have peered into the pantheon of greatness, and it is dominated by sky blue shirts.
Bernardo Silva epitomises everything that is utopian about this City side. There are more naturally gifted footballers in world football, but few have eked every inch of ability from themselves than the attacking midfield metronome.
Silva has benefitted from years of expert tutelage from a manager who recognises just how important it is to have a player like the 27-year-old. He fulfils every role that is asked of him to an elite standard while leaving pitches without so much as a breath left in his lungs, with his double in City’s rampant victory over a Sporting side completely out of their depth trying to take on demigods just the reward this most industrious of footballers deserved – all the sweeter on enemy turf.
The pre-match scenes in the Portuguese capital were refreshingly normal in these strangest of times.
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With no testing at either end, the trip had no additional costs or much further hassle, as City sold out their 2700 ticket allocation with ease.
Plazas were taken over by blue flags, buskers had done their homework, with a full band delighting City fans with their rendition of Blue Moon, while Mancunians in shorts, being on the continent of course, were busy telling all and sundry that this would finally be their year.
Yet, there was still an element of apprehension in the air – after all, City and the Champions League has not always been happiest of combinations.
On the ground where City again failed to fulfill their European dreams two years ago against Lyon, a Sporting side who are riding the crest of a wave under the highly-rated, embryonic coaching talent Ruben Amorim, could have represented a tricky obstacle. For mere mortals.
The hosts had lost once at home domestically in two seasons, largely down to their supremely well organised defence, and from the off the plan in the buzzing Estadio Jose Alvalade – playing in the Champions League last-16 for just the second time – was simple: stifle and frustrate their opponent. A plan that worked for all of seven minutes.
The opener was a bizarre, modern phenomenon. As Riyad Mahrez slotted home his 10th goal in his last 11 Champions League appearances from eight yards, City players did not celebrate, as Kevin De Bruyne was clearly offside as he setup the in-form Algerian.
Already trotting back to their positions, a lengthy VAR check took place, which nobody expected to change anything, only for the referee to turn and point to the centre spot. De Bruyne had the unfortunate Goncalo Inacio out of eye-line playing him on.
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The heady heights of the Champions League knockout rounds are clearly not for the faint-hearted Sporting. In their only other last-16 clash in 2009 they lost 12-1 to Bayern Munich on aggregate, shipping five at home, and were fearing the worst as Silva scored the most satisfying goal there is – a half volley off the underside of the crossbar – 17 minutes in to put City 2-0 in front.
It was tie over by the 32nd minute as Mahrez squared for Phil Foden, who poked home from close range, without serious challenge from a Sporting defender, before Silva coasted in, unmarked, and stroked home a fourth before half time, via a slight deflection. The ex-Benfica man was having a ball.
After a break, it was a matter of which world leading talent would step forward to get in on the act against the battered and bruised hosts, with Silva completing what he thought would have been his first-ever Champions League hat trick, only for VAR to intervene to rule his fine finish out for offside.
Raheem Sterling’s sumptuous curling effort, the ripest of cherries on the cake, did finish things off nicely for City – a fine way to move on to 150 club career goals.
A mix of misfortune and strange Pep Guardiola tactical epiphanies have denied City fans the one final bragging right they need to complete their collection with a Champions League crown finally under their belt, as Manchester United remain in a state of chaotic flux.
Without the away goals rule to potentially make things difficult, in this form, and with the options Guardiola has at his disposal, they surely cannot mess things up this time around, with players of Silva’s sheer drive and relentlessness, that can only rub off on those around him, key to keeping this juggernaut enroute to the game’s ultimate prize.
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