Pep Guardiola praised Rayan Cherki’s “unimaginable expertise” following his debut for Manchester Metropolis of their Membership World Cup win over Wydad Casablanca on Wednesday.
Cherki arrived from Lyon this month as Metropolis shortly set about including to their squad after a 2024-25 marketing campaign and not using a main trophy. Left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri and midfielder Tijjani Reijnders have additionally been introduced in from Wolves and AC Milan respectively, with Marcus Bettinelli becoming a member of from Chelsea to spice up the goalkeeping ranks.
Reijnders and Cherki made their bows for the membership in Philadelphia as Metropolis started their Membership World Cup marketing campaign with a snug 2-0 win.
Cherki performed by the center in entrance of Reijnders, however was largely a peripheral determine in a one-sided contest.
However requested about Cherki’s efficiency within the context of filling the void left by Kevin De Bruyne following his departure, Guardiola was clearly not ready to make any sweeping statements after one sport.
He instructed a post-match press convention: “After all, Kevin is troublesome to switch, we all know that.
“For the standard that he has, there is no such thing as a doubt about that. However on the identical time, the membership selected Rayan, he has unimaginable expertise near the field, an unimaginable imaginative and prescient and cross, he has many, many issues.
‘”[Today] was simply the primary sport in very robust circumstances however I’m actually happy that he’s right here.”
Talking earlier to DAZN about Reijnders and Cherki, Guardiola mentioned: “It’s good that they performed. Tijji performed actually good, Rayan performed good moments. Everybody has to know us and see what occurs.”
Phil Foden’s second-minute aim and a Forty second-minute strike from Jeremy Doku gave Metropolis the factors within the Group G conflict.
However of clear irritation to Guardiola was an 88th-minute purple card proven to Rico Lewis for a sliding problem during which he acquired the ball, solely to then observe by and catch Wydad’s Samuel Obeng within the face.
Guardiola was seen remonstrating with referee Ramon Abatti after the sport and later he mentioned of the choice: “He [Abatti] thought the leg was a bit of bit excessive, however he was on the grass. He touched the ball.
“For the pace they go to the touch the ball – for the Newton’s concept your leg needs to be a bit of bit increased and the opposite participant was down. Rico had no intention.
“Rico is the one who by no means has intention to harm anybody for his type of play.
“It was pointless, actually, the purple card, however the referee had a special opinion and he’s the boss. They checked VAR, so we settle for it.”