MANCHESTER, England: Phil Foden struck twice and Erling Haaland netted against his former club as Manchester City beat Borussia Dortmund 4-1 to climb to fourth in the Champions League table on Wednesday.
Foden’s two sublime finishes came just in time to remind England manager, Thomas Tuchel, of his quality before the German names his final squad of the year on Friday.
“Phil is back,” said City boss, Pep Guardiola, after Foden’s struggles for fitness and form last season.
“He’s a special player, but we need his goals, definitely. Today, hopefully, he made the first step to do it (more regularly).”
A first European defeat of the campaign leaves the German club down in 14th.
Dortmund had only lost once in their 14 previous games this season, 2-1 at Bayern Munich last month.
For the first time, one nation has six sides in Europe’s elite competition, and all of City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle, Tottenham and Chelsea are among the top 12 halfway through the league phase.
Guardiola has repeatedly called on his other forward players to ease the goalscoring burden on Haaland.
No other City player has scored more than once in the Premier League yet this term, but Foden has shown flickers of the form that saw him win ‘Player of the Year’ awards two seasons ago. – AFP
