Manchester City have not had too much to shout about recently.
After losing five games in a row, City blew a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 with Feyenoord at the Etihad Stadium in their latest Champions League match.
Erling Haaland put his side ahead from the penalty spot in the 44th minute before bagging his second and City’s third of the night just eight minutes into the second half, with Ilkay Gundogan doubling the home side’s lead just before.
Then between the 75th and 89th minutes, the home side conceded three goals and ended up picking up just one point when they were in such a good position to take all three.
Despite this unfortunate result, which Alan Shearer called an “absolute disaster” for City, one figure in Pep Guardiola’s starting XI ended up being one of the Manchester club’s main positives on the night.
Matheus Nunes was one of City’s bright sparks from Feyenoord draw
Starting his fourth Champions League game of the campaign, Matheus Nunes completed the full 90 minutes against Feyenoord, as he has done in every European game he’s featured in this season.
Across those 90 minutes, the midfielder had 79 touches of the ball in total, making three key passes – one of which was the assist for Haaland’s second and City’s third of the night.
The Portuguese international also registered one shot on target and completed one dribble.
Despite the final result, Nunes managed to show his defensive qualities as well, making five tackles, three interceptions and blocking one shot throughout the game as well as winning eight of the 11 ground duels he was involved in.
This display ultimately earned the midfielder a strong overall match rating of 8/10 from SofaScore, leaving only Haaland (9.3/10) in the City team with a higher rating than him.
Nunes could be a crucial option against Liverpool
With City’s next match seeing them travel to Anfield to take on Premier League leaders Liverpool, Nunes’ efforts against Feyenoord showed why he could be a crucial inclusion in Guardiola’s starting XI on Sunday.
Taking into account how Arne Slot’s side have scored more goals (24 vs 22) and conceded fewer (8 vs 17) than City in the league this season, Nunes’ defensive attributes and his ability to deliver goal contributions could make him very useful for City in front of both goals.
