Nedum Onuoha witnessed a Manchester City player produce a moment of magic during his side’s defeat against Barcelona.
City’s loss on penalties cannot be conflated with how well they played as a unit at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando.
Several of Pep Guardiola’s starters on the day in particular stood out.
One of them was Jack Grealish, whose tremendous left-footed finish was deserving of his goal against Hansi Flick’s side.
Ahead of the contest, Grealish expressed his desire to return to his best next season.
Nedum Onuoha makes Riyad Mahrez comparison about Jack Grealish after Man City lose to Barcelona
The £300,000-a-week man looked like a man on a mission; going past defenders, picking up dangerous positions both on the left-wing and outside the box, testing Inaki Pena with his strikes from range and switching the play excellently.
Grealish put in a performance against Barcelona that was reminiscent of his brilliant showings during City’s treble-winning season.
During the game, the Englishman made the bold call of getting the ball out of his feet with his first touch from a diagonal from Kalvin Phillips.
The 28-year-old’s audacious attempt was perfectly executed.
Nedum Onuoha felt the piece of skill Grealish produced was an indicator of the time that he had spent with Riyad Mahrez, who often used to execute a similarly remarkable ploy to get past defenders.
Onuoha said on City’s official half-time show on YouTube: “That’s so naughty that, you know. Never in a million years would I take a ball on a half-volley to control it from a 40-yard diagonal. You can tell this is a guy that spent a couple of years with [Riyad] Mahrez.”
Jack Grealish has that first touch in his locker
Much like Nedum Onuoha, perhaps every observer was left with their jaws on the floor after witnessing Grealish control and manipulate the ball in such outrageous fashion.
Mahrez’s strike in Manchester City’s 3-2 win against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup during the 2022/2023 season saw him produce the same first touch.
The former Aston Villa captain has executed such a first touch in several games at City.
Whether that is due to learning from Mahrez in training or due to his own incredible technique would be interesting to discover.
But Grealish certainly has that particular skill in his locker, which allows him to drift into his favoured central areas due to already creating a yard or two between himself and the right-back in question.
