Manchester City endured a frustrating evening at The Etihad on Wednesday night as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Serie A champions Inter.
Pep Guardiola‘s side kicked off their Champions League campaign with a solitary point on the board and will surely be disappointed that they did not claim all three.
They had the chances to come away with the win, racking up 2.45 xG to Inter’s 0.53, but failed to make the most of the big chances that they created.
There were a number of underwhelming performers on the pitch for the Premier League champions and one of them, Savinho, was withdrawn at the break.
Savinho’s performance in numbers
The Brazil international was selected to start on the right flank for City but only last 45 minutes before the Spanish head coach opted to replace him with Phil Foden.
It was not a horrendous display from the former Girona star, however, as he did not make any major mistakes or look completely out of his depth.
Inter doubled, and sometimes tripled, up on him, though, and that meant that the forward struggled to make things happen in possession, ending the half with one chance created and zero dribbles completed.
90min awarded him a player rating of 6/10 for his 45 minutes on the pitch, describing him as the ‘primary’ outlet for City in the first half, and he was far from the worst performer for City, as Bernardo Silva let Guardiola down even more.
Bernardo Silva’s struggles against Inter
The Portugal international, who was handed a 5/10 player rating from 90min, produced a disappointing display in the middle of the park for the Cityzens.
He did not offer much in the way of quality in or out of possession. Opposition defenders found it too easy to get the better of him in physical duels and he was too safe in his use of the ball.
The midfielder ended his time on the pitch with a pass completion rate of 94% but did not create a single chance for his teammates from any of those passes, which speaks to his lack of quality in the final third.
|
Vs Inter |
Bernardo Silva |
|---|---|
|
Pass completion rate |
94% |
|
Key passes |
0 |
|
Shots on target |
0 |
|
Big chances missed |
1 |
|
Duels won |
0/3 |
As you can see in the table above, the 30-year-old star lost all three of his duels in midfield for City and did not register a single key pass or shot on target.
The big chance he missed was also a glaring opportunity to find the back of the net. Kevin de Bruyne played a sublime ball across the box and Bernardo almost missed his kick from around 12 yards out, under no pressure, and the ball bobbled away from him.
This shows that he was even worse than Savinho, who at least created a chance for the team and did not miss any ‘big chances’, against Inter, and that is why he let Guardiola down with his poor showing on Wednesday night.
