City scores that goal so often that it has become its default setting. Here, it felt almost like it was a comfort blanket, this City team’s artful, devastating version of going back to basics. That was true at Barcelona and at Bayern Munich, too, of course: more than City’s goal, it is Guardiola’s. Perhaps, in time, just as a chipped penalty has become known as a Panenka for the man who made it famous, a far-post tap-in from a low cross will take his name. It is the goal that has characterized City’s success, too, since he arrived here: 57 times, one of his players has scored from inside the six-yard box in his time in England.

Source: New York Times February 03, 2019 21:02 UTC