Barcelona have reportedly reignited their chase of Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva, and are said to be confident in their ability to get the deal done in January.

Silva, 28, has won four league titles with City since arriving at the club in 2017, and is enjoying another strong season after setting a new career-high with eight Premier League goals in the 2021-22 campaign.

The Portuguese international with 72 senior caps has two goals and five assists in his 12 league appearances this season, and has appeared in all six of City's Champions League group stage fixtures.

Barcelona have been linked with Silva for months, but after recent reports claimed they had moved on, a recent development has positively impacted the Spanish giants' financial situation and put the City star back on their radar.

TOP STORY – BARCELONA REVISIT CITY'S SILVA AFTER PIQUE RETIREMENT

According to Sport, the retirement of Gerard Pique has resulted in significantly improved financial flexibility for Barcelona, allowing them to revisit their long-standing interest in Silva.

The report claims City may be hesitant to part ways with a key contributor in the midst of a title chase, but that Silva had previously asked to leave the club before the failed sale of Frenkie de Jong muddied the waters.

Meanwhile, Mundo Deportivo adds Barcelona will look at 31-year-old Athletic Bilbao centre-back Inigo Martinez as their top choice to fill the defensive void left by Pique's departure.

ROUND-UP

– Calciomercato is reporting Chelsea are preparing to terminate the loan of Denis Zakaria, claiming they can not offer him regular starts and have no interest in activating the €28million buy clause in the deal.

– According to ESPN, Liverpool are the favourites ahead of Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester United and City to land Borussia Dortmund phenom Jude Bellingham.

– The Leicester Mercury is reporting Leicester City will not allow Youri Tielemans to leave during the January transfer window, despite his contract expiring at the end of the season.

– Milan are keeping a close eye on 22-year-old Spezia centre-back Jakub Kiwior, with Gazzetta dello Sport reporting they could make a move in January.

– According to La Razon, Aston Villa manager Unai Emery is interested in 25-year-old centre-back Pau Torres, who he coached at Villarreal.

Such is the instantaneous nature of social media that one miss, one innocuous incident can see a player written off as a "fraud" or "finished".

It's up to every one of us how much importance we tie to those individual comments. Maybe they're jokes, maybe they're serious. But when you see thousands of likes or retweets on them, you get a picture of how widespread these quick judgements are, and in that sense it doesn't really matter if they were in jest or not.

This isn't to say we didn't use to be like this, the difference is now many of us have at our fingertips an outlet that reaches thousands of people within seconds.

Darwin Nunez came in for such treatment in pre-season. During a meaningless friendly against Manchester United, the Uruguayan missed a big chance and quickly became the target of ridicule on social media.

Granted, he had recently been signed for a lot of money, but the hysteria – given the game had nothing riding on it – was remarkable. For what it's worth, he scored four in one match nine days later.

Since then, a lot of column inches have been dedicated to Nunez, which is a bit fairer now the season's in full flow.

One thing many agree about is how the striker appears to be one of the most chaotic footballers in existence, but this shouldn't cloud what he's doing well. He's raw, but if you scrape away the surface, the signs for Nunez and Liverpool are very promising.

Untapped potential

Jurgen Klopp hit the nail on the head last week when talking about Nunez's potential. In his eyes, the 23-year-old potentially has an "incredible" ceiling, but he acknowledged there was still so much work for the striker to put in that it was unclear how good he'll eventually become.

"Nobody knows, he doesn't know. Nobody knows, there is a lot [of potential] and it is so exciting, but he has to stay fit, he has to be available all the time," Klopp said. "That's all important in the life of a professional football player. We have to work on all different areas. Then, the potential is incredible. It's not only speed, the attitude is really good, he is a real worker.

"Again, I tell you – and I know there are some people out there who think, 'Technically, not sure, first touch...' – it is incredible. That he doesn't bring it on the pitch all the time, the first touch might be here or there sometimes, is nothing to do with technique, it is just a bit too late, awareness, orientation and all these kind of things, but it is all possible to develop and to learn. That's where we are at, it's really exciting, but where it can go, I have no idea."

There was always going to be scrutiny for Nunez because of the transfer fee, but would there have been as much were it not for Erling Haaland's ridiculous start? Probably not, as they were brought in around the same time and both considered by many as the so-called final pieces of the puzzle for their respective teams.

As the past few months have shown, Haaland is a phenomenon, that's not up for debate. But Nunez taking a little more time to truly settle doesn't make him any less promising than he was deemed at Benfica.

In fact, you could argue his output has exceeded expectations at this point.

Darwin's evolution

"His numbers are incredible, to be absolutely honest," Klopp also said of Nunez last week. "If you speak about xGs [expected goals], I am pretty sure his xGs are pretty high as well. He had a few chances which he missed, but he scored as well. He is involved in a lot of finishing moments, a lot of things."

Klopp is correct here – the data firmly backs him up. While Nunez's tally of three Premier League goals doesn't sound much, we shouldn't forget he's already served a three-match ban for getting sent off against Crystal Palace. His record of 0.6 goals every 90 minutes is bettered by only seven players.

With that in mind, Nunez's 432 Premier League minutes is fairly low, but he's managed to pack a lot of action into that limited period – hence the "chaotic" appraisal earlier.

He ranks inside the top 10 for goal involvements per 90 minutes (0.8) and minutes per goal (144), but it's in the shooting metrics where Nunez's productivity really shines through.

No one is registering more attempts on a per-90-minute basis than Nunez (6.7), while only Haaland (2.6) is getting more shots on target than the Uruguay forward (2.5) each game.

But perhaps crucially, and back to Klopp's point, his non-penalty xG (per 90) is 0.76, only fractionally behind Haaland's league-best 0.81.

Of course, the issue here is Nunez isn't finishing as many chances as the average player would be expected to given the quality of the openings, while Haaland has been exceptionally ruthless with his opportunities.

But it would be more concerning if he wasn't getting chances at all.

Nunez's struggles could be explained by any number of factors such as confidence, adaptation, the roles he's being asked to play, maybe even a desperate need to impress, and that might explain some of his more erratic decision-making.

But the expectation is that with time and composure Nunez's figures will eventually level up with his xG. On the evidence of his attributes until now, when they do, Liverpool will have an exceptional striker on their hands.

Pep Guardiola issued a sarcastic response to Zlatan Ibrahimovic's claim the Manchester City manager's ego could hold Erling Haaland back, joking he was "jealous" of his striker.

Haaland has scored 17 goals in his first 11 Premier League appearances, making light of suggestions he could struggle to adapt to Guardiola's style of play.

However, Ibrahimovic – who famously failed to connect with Guardiola when working with him at Barcelona – has suggested the City boss would not take kindly to Haaland's incredible exploits.

Speaking to Canal+, Ibrahimovic said: "Can Guardiola make Haaland even stronger? It depends on Guardiola's ego, if he lets him become bigger than him or not. He didn't let me get bigger."

Those comments were put to Guardiola at a press conference looking ahead to Saturday's Premier League meeting with Fulham, provoking a satirical reply from the City boss.

"He's right. He's completely right," Guardiola sarcastically said. "In this club, in this team, my ego is beyond the performance of the players. 

"I don't like it when Erling scores three goals and all the highlights are for him. I'm so jealous, honestly. So jealous. I said afterward: 'Please, Erling, don't score any more goals'. 

"I want The Sun, The Daily Mail to talk about me. He's right. He knows me perfectly."

That Football Association (FA) will appeal against the sanction imposed on Jurgen Klopp for his red card during Liverpool's win over Manchester City last month.

Klopp was shown a red card for furiously charging towards assistant referee Gary Beswick and berating the official late in a 1-0 Premier League win for the Reds at Anfield on October 16.

The Liverpool manager admitted he "lost it" after he also confronted referee Anthony Taylor for not awarding a foul for a challenge on Mohamed Salah by Bernardo Silva.

Klopp was fined £30,000 by an independent regulatory commission but avoided a touchline ban.

He apologised for his actions and accepted the initial FA charge before discovering what his punishment would be, but the governing body on Friday revealed it will appeal against the commission's decision.

"The FA can confirm that it is appealing against the independent regulatory commission's sanction in relation to the recent case involving Jurgen Klopp after reviewing its written reasons," an FA spokesperson said.

"The independent regulatory commission fined Jurgen Klopp £30,000 for breaching FA rule E3 during Liverpool's Premier League game on Sunday 16 October 2022 against Manchester City."

Eddie Howe does not believe Jack Grealish's criticism of Miguel Almiron in Manchester City's title celebrations contributed to the Newcastle United winger's remarkable upturn in form.

In a clip that went viral, Grealish said in the aftermath of City's dramatic Premier League triumph he had welcomed the substitution of Riyad Mahrez against Aston Villa on the final day as his team-mate "played like Almiron".

It was a harsh jibe but one that spoke to Almiron's frustratingly ineffectual performances in a Newcastle shirt.

The former Atlanta United star too often lacked an end product prior to the start of this season.

But Almiron has spectacularly turned his Newcastle career around in 2022-23, scoring seven goals from chances worth just 4.2 expected goals (xG).

After netting his first of the campaign against Grealish's City in August, Almiron hit six in six in October – several of his strikes of stunning quality as Newcastle ended the month unbeaten.

Many have pondered whether there is a direct correlation between Grealish's criticism and Almiron's improved performances, although Callum Wilson this week said his team-mate "just shrugged his shoulders" at the incident.

Newcastle coach Howe was asked about the comments on Friday, and replied: "I've never discussed it with Miggy, because I don't see it being relevant at all.

"He's never discussed it with me. Personally, I don't think it would have any part in his thinking.

"I think Miggy's motivations are much bigger than that and greater than that.

"Any comment that anyone in the world would make – whether it's about me or someone else – I think you have to have a bigger picture.

"And the bigger picture for Miggy is being the best he can be for Newcastle. He loves the club, the supporters love him, he loves the supporters back.

"I think his motivations are greater than any comment from any individual. He's proud to play for his country, as well, so he's got huge positive things in his life that have driven him more than that."

Almiron initially thrilled after joining Newcastle in January 2019 but failed to score his first goal before the end of the season, belatedly ending that wait in December of the same year.

Until this term, he had never tallied more than four goals in a single Premier League campaign, underperforming his xG in three of four seasons.

It was expected then that Newcastle would seek to replace Almiron in the transfer window, but they instead focused their attentions elsewhere, buying goalkeeper Nick Pope, centre-back Sven Botman, left-back Matt Targett and striker Alexander Isak.

"I think the key thing is not to listen to outside speculation," Howe said. "For me, the targets we had in the summer were clear; we recruited in those positions.

"I've always said: if there's an area that we feel or players that we feel can improve the squad, we'll always look at that, regardless of who we have internally. That will never change."

He added: "Certainly the players that are here and have done well for us will be respected."

More recently, comments coming out of City in Newcastle's direction have been more positive, with Grealish's manager Pep Guardiola describing Howe's fourth-placed side as "contenders".

"I'd much rather people said nice things about us than not, but I'm not in control of that and it doesn't really change anything," Howe said.

"It's nice to hear people's opinions of us if they're positive, and if they're not, that's up to them.

"It doesn't change anything about what we're doing; only we can prove whether we're contenders or not. We have to do that on a weekly basis."

Erling Haaland's fitness will be assessed following Manchester City's final training session ahead of Saturday's meeting with Fulham, Pep Guardiola has revealed.

Haaland sat out last week's 1-0 Premier League win at Leicester City, as well as Wednesday's 3-1 Champions League triumph over Sevilla, after suffering a foot injury. 

The Norwegian has scored 17 goals in his first 11 Premier League appearances, and while Guardiola is keen to see him return, City will wait before making a final decision on his involvement. 

"He's much better. We will decide today," Guardiola said on Friday. "It's a good step, he starts to train, and we have training this afternoon and we will see.

"It all depends on himself, his opinion and the doctors' opinion. It could be 90 minutes or less, we will see after training."

City will be boosted by the presence of another former Borussia Dortmund player next time out, with Manuel Akanji fit to feature after limping out of last week's win at the King Power Stadium.

However, while Guardiola is set to shuffle his pack ahead of the World Cup break. City are still without England duo Kalvin Phillips and Kyle Walker, who are both battling to be fit to make the trip to Qatar.

"Manu is okay, Kalvin and Kyle are still not fit," Guardiola added. "Some players who didn't play [against Sevilla] will play.

"I have many players, I have to use them. I demand the best of them, and this will always happen in the future."

The scheduling of a mid-season World Cup has attracted renewed criticism in recent days after several big-name players – including Tottenham's Son Heung-min and Manchester United's Raphael Varane – saw their hopes of playing in Qatar thrown into doubt by injuries.

However, with just over two weeks to go until the tournament begins, Guardiola does not believe the spectre of the World Cup is causing his players to play with caution.

"I'll be honest with you, seeing the way our players behave, how they run, how they compete in duels, I'm not concerned at all about what is going to happen in these six or seven days," he added.

"Next Saturday, we will start the World Cup preparations, and holidays for the rest of the players. From what I saw, so far, everyone is committed to what we have to do." 

Pep Guardiola has described coaching Gerard Pique as "an honour" after the Spain international announced his decision to retire from football.

Pique revealed in a video on social media on Thursday that he will make his final appearance for Barcelona against Almeria at Camp Nou on Saturday before hanging up his boots.

The 35-year-old played under Guardiola for four seasons at Barca between 2008 and 2012.

"It was surprising news," Guardiola admitted at a press conference ahead of Manchester City's Premier League clash with Fulham.

"After making an incredible career in Barcelona, I wish him personally all the best for him and his family.

"He was a player for the big games, never once missing or behave [badly] or have a performance not in the highest level. That is what all the big clubs need, these kind of players.

"He won everything for Barcelona and Spain. The time arrives, the future will be bright, he's a smart guy.

"It was an honour for me personally to be his manager, and we spent an incredible four years together."

Pique will retire as a Barca legend, with only four players making more appearances for the club than his 614.

Those are Lionel Messi (778), Xavi (767), Sergio Busquets (694) and Andres Iniesta (674) - all of whom helped form part of the dominant Barca team in the 2010s alongside Pique.

He lifted 30 titles with the club in what was the most successful period in Barca's history, and Guardiola refused to be drawn on possible comparisons with any of his players at Man City.

"[It is] not about comparing, when you compare these things, someone is damaged," he said. "If you ask me my best full-back as manager, it would be unfair because everyone is everyone.

"All I will say is Gerard is a happy man in his life, he said in the video perfectly 'I don't want to be a football player, I want to be a Barcelona player'. It was his dream and his dream came true.

"Being there In the tough moments, the big important games, final of the Champions League or World Cup finals, derbies against [Real] Madrid, Atletico, Sevilla, Espanyol, always [he] was there.

"Of course his career had ups and downs, every player is like that. We knew in the locker room how his personality was important and in the big games always was the best."

LaLiga has warned a fresh attempt to launch a European Super League will be offering only a rehashed version of the competition that launched and collapsed within days last year, leaving clubs humiliated.

The Spanish league is determined to fend off a new proposition for an elite league, and has warned it would "destroy" the existing structure of the domestic game.

In a statement, LaLiga pointed to a previous proposal from 2019, as well as the calamitous launching of the Super League last year that saw 12 teams agree to take part, before almost all pulled out in a hurry after a furious backlash from fans, politicians and football governing bodies.

It was revealed in October 2022 that A22 Sports Management – a company representing the Super League clubs – is planning to revive the proposals. Bernd Reichart, a media executive, has been appointed to head up the plans.

LaLiga said on Twitter on Friday: "The promoters of the Super League are now preparing a model similar to the one put forward in 2019, which is still closed or mostly closed, which will destroy the national leagues and which has already been rejected by clubs and leagues in Europe."

Spanish giants Barcelona are among the teams still keen on the idea of a new competition, with club president Joan Laporta last month saying it would be "more even" than the current system, claiming UEFA is not satisfactorily enforcing the ethos of financial fair play.

LaLiga published a video expressing its opposition to the Super League, in which it stated that "the whole of European football took a stand against its closed, selfish and elitist model".

"Now the promoters of the Super League are trying to conceal its format, claiming that they still don't have a fixed model although it will be an inclusive and open," LaLiga added.

"We know that this is false, and that they want to present a semi-closed format similar to 2019 which has already been rejected by the clubs and European leagues.

"This model is based on promotion and relegation between European divisions where the national leagues do not provide direct access to the top tier. On the contrary, they perpetuate the participation of a privileged few, even if they perform poorly in their domestic leagues.

"To be clear: anything less than any club earning its place in Europe's top flight through success in the domestic leagues will remain a closed or semi-closed model.

"We have also heard that the Super League wants to claim to be the saviour of football, saying that the current system no longer appeals to young people. Fake news. As an example, data shows that LaLiga's audience in Spain among those under the age of 24 has increased by more than 22 per cent in the last four seasons."

LaLiga also said research showed football's global fan base had risen by 3.4 per cent in the 16-29 age bracket, while stating TikTok metrics revealed 60 per cent of its mainly young audience consumes football content.

The statement from LaLiga said the Super League's promise of "a more exciting competition" would in reality mean "a constant stream of the same type of clashes, turning the extraordinary into the ordinary".

It warned such a competition "would destroy the ability to turn dreams into reality", denying smaller clubs than the cherry-picked elite the long-established pathway to competition at the highest level.

LaLiga, whose president Javier Tebas has been a vocal opponent of the proposed new competition, added: "The promoters of the Super League must respect the will of European fans and citizens, where the Council of Europe has already taken a position against the Super League and the European Parliament has defended an open, democratic model based on meritocracy."

Manchester City have condemned "vile" racist abuse from Sevilla fans towards Rico Lewis during Wednesday's Champions League clash, stating "we will not tolerate any discrimination".

The 17-year-old Lewis's memorable Champions League debut at Etihad Stadium was marred by racist abuse after City confirmed two arrests had been made amid a continued club and police investigation.

"Manchester City strongly condemns the racist abuse that Rico Lewis was subject to from Sevilla supporters at yesterday's match," a club statement read on Thursday.

"We understand that two arrests have been made and are continuing to work with Sevilla and GMP [Greater Manchester Police] to investigate this matter.

"We will not tolerate discrimination of any kind at our stadium and will be offering our full support to Rico following these vile incidents."

Sevilla said disciplinary action will be taken should the two culprits be proven guilty.

"Sevilla strongly condemn the behaviour of two fans in the away section of Manchester City's stadium, who were identified and accused of allegedly behaving in a racist manner towards Manchester City player Rico Lewis," a statement from the LaLiga said.

"Sevilla are awaiting official confirmation of these facts, of which they have been made aware by Manchester City, and if these are proven, the two fans will be removed from the list of members.

"Sevilla would like to point out that there have never been any racist or xenophobic episodes at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium and that its fans have always been committed to the fight against racism."

Lewis scored the equaliser in the comeback 3-1 victory over Sevilla and became the youngest player in history to score on his Champions League debut.

Erling Haaland's Manchester City progress will be down to Pep Guardiola's ego, says Zlatan Ibrahimovic, while the striker also thinks Kylian Mbappe made a mistake staying with Paris Saint-Germain.

Norway international Haaland arrived at the Etihad Stadium during the last transfer window from Borussia Dortmund and has thus far lived up to the hype that surrounded his signing.

With 22 goals in a combined 15 games between the Premier League and Champions League already, the sky appears to be the limit for the forward this season.

But veteran Milan attacker Ibrahimovic, while a fan of the Leeds-born striker, fears his progress could be stymied by Guardiola, a coach whom he famously failed to connect with at Barcelona.

"Can Guardiola make Haaland even stronger? It depends on Guardiola's ego, if he lets him become bigger than him or not," the Sweden international told Canal+.

"He didn't let me get bigger, me [and] others. Not only me, [but] many others [too]. I like Haaland, very much so. I think he is a very intelligent player. He doesn't do things he is not capable of."

Ibrahimovic also weighed in on the future PSG forward Mbappe, whose next step remains the subject of feverish speculation.

The France attacker penned an extension to stay with the Ligue 1 champions, turning down a move to Real Madrid, but has reportedly seen his working relationships subsequently break down at the club.

On whether he should have made the switch to LaLiga, Ibrahimovic added: "He made the right choice for Paris, not for himself.

"He put himself in a situation where is more important than the club. Then the club gave him the keys for that. But you are never bigger than a club."

Napoli winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is expected to cost €100million if the undefeated Serie A leaders choose to sell at the end of the season.

Kvaratskhelia, 21, was with Rubin Kazan for three seasons before the Russian invasion of Ukraine halted their 2021-22 campaign, allowing the Georgia-born player to sign with Georgian club Dinamo Batumi.

Napoli scooped him up from Batumi for around €10m, and he has been in fine form since arriving in Italy. In 12 Serie A games, Kvaratskhelia has six goals and seven assists, while adding two goals and three assists in five Champions League matches.

A January sale has been ruled out, but if the club decide to cash-in on their shrewd piece of business, they could reportedly multiply their investment 10-fold.

TOP STORY – BREAKOUT NAPOLI YOUNGSTER SET TO COMMAND NINE-FIGURE FEE

According to Kvaratskhelia's agent Christian Emile in an interview with Fabrizio Romano, the Georgian sensation affectionately referred to as 'Kvaradona' by Napoli fans is one of the hottest names on the transfer market.

In the interview, reported by the London Evening Standard, Emile said there is "a zero per cent chance" he is sold in January as Napoli push for their first title since the 1989-90 season. 

However, he said "people are talking about €100m" when discussing Kvaratskhelia's value now, and if his form continues in this fashion the rest of the season, Emile added "he will reach €100m for sure".

The report names Liverpool and Chelsea as two of the key clubs known to have interest at this point.

ROUND-UP

– Mundo Deportivo is reporting Manchester City's Ilkay Gundogan – who is out of contract at the end of the season – is a target for Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid. 

– According to The Daily Mail, Manchester United have made Borussia Dortmund's Jude Bellingham their top target.

– Eden Hazard could leave Real Madrid in January, per Mundo Deportivo, with Juventus named as a club interested in the 31-year-old.

– Media Foot is reporting United are "seriously considering" a move for 33-year-old Bayern Munich forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, but they will not be making any significant purchases in January.

– According to L'Equipe, Lionel Messi does not want to leave Paris Saint-Germain without winning "a major trophy", and is considering extending his contract beyond this season.

Pep Guardiola hailed Manchester City's record-breaker Rico Lewis after he became the youngest player to score on his first Champions League start in Wednesday's 3-1 win over Sevilla.

A much-changed City team initially fell behind to Rafa Mir's header in their final Group G fixture, but at the age of 17 years and 346 days old, Lewis hammered home to beat Karim Benzema's 2005 record and level the scores.

Lewis' effort kick-started a City comeback, as Julian Alvarez put Guardiola's team in the ascendancy before teeing up Riyad Mahrez to complete the scoring late on.

Speaking to BT Sport after the victory, Guardiola credited Lewis for his intelligence and said City's win showed the future is bright at the Etihad Stadium.

"What a goal, he's a fantastic player. He's so intelligent," Guardiola said of the right-back. "Apart from the skills, he's so intelligent, so clever.

 "He understands everything. He made a fantastic goal, high past the goalkeeper, and played really well.

"We have a young squad, we have some older players but it's a young squad. Julian is young but top-class, and Rico, and of course, Sergio [Gomez].

"They played in the Champions League against Sevilla, an experienced team, and for prestige, money, everything, it was important."

Lewis' goal came on the day he became just the fifth Englishman to start a Champions League game before turning 18, after Jack Wilshere, Josh McEachran, Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham.

His strong all-round performance also earned him praise from City defender Ruben Dias, who told BT Sport: "He's an enormous talent. He's been with us a long time. 

"For him to get the opportunity of playing practically the full game and to score, you can see his quality. Brilliant things from him, he just needs to keep working.

"At this club it doesn't matter if it's a friendly, the Champions League final, or a game in the groups with everything done. We need to push each other, the same as in training.

"It was one of those games, everything is settled in the group, it's a game in which you need to perform because the rhythm is going with non-stop games."

Teenager Rico Lewis kick-started a Manchester City comeback as Pep Guardiola's side beat Sevilla 3-1 to cap a successful Champions League Group G campaign.

City were without Erling Haaland through injury and rested other key players for Wednesday's meeting at the Etihad Stadium, which was stunned into silence when Rafa Mir put the visitors ahead.

However, City deservedly levelled through 17-year-old right-back Lewis when he fired home in the 52nd minute of his full debut, becoming the youngest player in Champions League history to score on his first start in the competition, breaking the record set by Karim Benzema in 2005.

Having teed up Lewis' equaliser, Julian Avarez scored with 17 minutes remaining before playing in Riyad Mahrez to round off the victory late on.

City went close within two minutes when Cole Palmer fired over following a sloppy pass from Yassine Bounou, before Stefan Ortega pushed Mir's low strike away at the other end.

Mir sent a header narrowly wide, but City didn't heed those warnings, and it was third time lucky for the Sevilla striker when he nodded Isco's right-wing delivery into the top-right corner after 31 minutes.

City piled on the pressure, which finally told when Lewis latched onto Alvarez's pass to hammer a shot into the roof of the net.

Guardiola sent on Kevin De Bruyne in a bid to complete the turnaround, and the playmaker had only been on the pitch for three minutes when he released Alvarez, who rounded Bounou before converting.

Alvarez was not done there, however, joining a high press before finding Mahrez, who fired home left-footed to complete the scoring.

Salzburg will have to do what no other Austrian side has done before at Milan to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages, while Jude Bellingham has his eyes on an achievement managed by only two players previously.

The Rossoneri need only a point from the game at San Siro and the historical facts suggest they will achieve their aim to make it out of Group E.

For Bellingham, he can put his name in the record books alongside former team-mate Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe by scoring for Borussia Dortmund at Copenhagen.

There is plenty to play for as the Champions League group stage wraps up on Wednesday, and Stats Perform has trawled through the data to shine a light on the most interesting angles.

Milan v Salzburg

With a win, Salzburg will advance to the knockout stages for the second consecutive season after never making it out of the group stage previously.

They will need to defy the odds on their trip to Milan, where the Italian side are undefeated in home fixtures against Austrian opponents in the competition (W4 D1), while averaging 3.8 goals per game.

Salzburg have never beaten Milan in their three previous Champions League meetings, but after losing the first two, they collected their first point with a 1-1 draw in this campaign's reverse fixture.

While Olivier Giroud became the oldest player in Champions League history to reach 20 goals (36 years old) during Milan's win at Dinamo Zagreb last time out, Salzburg boast the youngest starting XI in the competition with an average age of 22 years and 279 days.

Shakhtar Donetsk v RB Leipzig

Shakhtar have only won one game in the group stage, but sit three points behind second-placed. A win would see them through to the knockout stages for the third time in the past four seasons.

The reverse-fixture was a memorable one for Shakhtar and exciting young winger Mykhailo Mudryk, who showed why he is so in-demand with a goal and two assists in a 4-1 away win.

Unfortunately for the Ukrainian side, that was their only victory from their past 12 Champions League matches (D6 L5).

Meanwhile, Leipzig have found some form in the competition, with back-to-back victories against Celtic before making it three wins in a row when they beat Real Madrid 3-2.

Manchester City v Sevilla

City are eyeing an undefeated group stage when they host Sevilla, having only conceded one goal in total from their five games until this point.

English sides have given Sevilla trouble for years now, with their last Champions League win over a Premier League team coming back in 2007 against Arsenal. 

If Jorge Sampaoli's side are to stand any chance of a shock win, they will need to pay special attention to Jack Grealish, who has impressed in the group stage with 10 chances created from open play, the most in Pep Guardiola's squad.

Maccabi Haifa v Benfica

If Juventus can salvage even a draw in their clash with Paris Saint-Germain, then Benfica will be able to win Group H by defeating Maccabi Haifa.

It has been a special run of form for Benfica, who for the first time since 1990 have gone six Champions League games without a loss (W3 D3).

Maccabi will have their backs against the wall, as only Malmo have a worse winning percentage (17 per cent) than their 24 per cent among teams to have played at least 15 Champions League games.

Also working in Benfica's favour is manager Roger Schmidt's record in the competition. Between his time with Bayer Leverkusen (2014-2017) and Benfica in this campaign, his run of 13 games unbeaten is the most by any active manager qualified for this season's Champions League.

Other fixtures:

Juventus v Paris Saint-Germain

5  - Juventus are looking to avoid becoming the second Italian side to ever lose five matches in a Champions League group stage, after Roma in 2004-05.

6  - Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe has six goals in the group stage. With one more he can tie Christopher Nkunku (last season) for the most by a French player in a single group stage, while with two more he can tie Zlatan Ibrahimovic's club-record of eight in 2013-14.

Copenhagen v Borussia Dortmund

60  - Despite Copenhagen still being without a win in Group G, they have kept a clean sheet in 60 per cent (nine-of-15) of their Champions League home games – the best ratio of any team with at least 10 appearances.

3  - With a goal, Bellingham can become just the third teenager to ever score in all three away games in a Champions League group stage, following Mbappe (2017-18) and Haaland (2019-20).

Chelsea v Dinamo Zagreb

10  - Chelsea are undefeated in their past 10 group stage games in the Champions League dating back to September 2019 (W6 D4). Over that period, they are averaging 2.3 goals per game.

10  - Along with City's Grealish, Chelsea's Mason Mount is the only other Premier League player from this Champions League campaign to tally at least 10 shots and 10 chances created.

Real Madrid v Celtic

20  - Since the beginning of last season's Champions League, no player has been involved in more open-play sequences that have resulted in a goal than Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior (20).

14  - Celtic's Matt O'Riley has attempted the most shots in the Champions League this season without scoring, with no goals from his 14 shots.

Julian Alvarez says it is "a privilege" to play with Erling Haaland at Manchester City, calling the Norway forward "the best in the world".

The two were among the fresh faces at the Etihad Stadium ahead of the 2021-22 campaign, brought in to fill an attacking void left by the departure of Sergio Aguero a year prior.

Despite superb form during his final months at River Plate, Alvarez has found himself playing second fiddle to former Borussia Dortmund attacker Haaland, who has been almost unstoppable.

But the Argentina international believes it is an honour to call the Leeds-born forward his team-mate, and thinks the pair will learn from each other over the course of their partnership at City.

"First and foremost, it’s a privilege playing with him," Alvarez said ahead of Wednesday's Champions League clash with Sevilla. "It is always great to play alongside the best in the world.

"I have played with him and without him and I think we can learn from each other both ways. I like he always wants to bring the best to the team.

"We’re very different players, but people have to adapt to different types of play and different styles when players line up. I like to occupy different positions on the pitch.

"In River I had other players who were big goalscorers so the same thing happened. I'm used to these types of situations.

"I trust in myself and in my own ability and know the other players trust me as well. It’s important that however way we can, we win."

Alvarez has managed just five starts across 16 appearances this term in all competitions, though three of those have come in the Champions League.

Haaland will sit out City's final group-stage game after he missed the Premier League win over Leicester, though he could return for their next top-flight game against Fulham on Saturday.