Manchester City 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb: 3 Reasons why Pep Guardiola's side won the game

#1 Substitutes do the job for Pep Guardiola

Manchester City v Dinamo Zagreb: Group C - UEFA Champions League

After watching his side dominate the entire first half yet fail to score a goal, Pep Guardiola would have been a frustrated man. The Spaniard kept his team unchanged at the start of the second half but knew soon enough that his side lacked the killer edge in the final third. Guardiola refused to wait longer and made his most important decision of the game – replacing Bernardo Silva with Raheem Sterling.

The Englishman had an instant impact on the game, scoring after 10 minutes. From the edge of the opposition box, Rodrigo played a pass to Mahrez out on the left and the Algerian sent a low cross across the face of the goal. Raheem Sterling’s movement and alertness saw him get ahead of Emir Dilaver and the Englishman scored to put his team ahead.

In the first minute of injury time, Guardiola replaced David Silva with Phil Foden and it turned out to be another masterstroke. At the end of another City counter-attack in the dying minutes of injury time, Raheem Sterling set up Foden to score City’s second of the game, wrapping up a good night’s work.