Given how Manchester City started their Champions League match against Napoli on Tuesday evening, it looked like a rout was on the cards, and Italy’s league leaders would be sent back to Serie A with their tail between their legs.
Things turned out quite different, and Napoli improved in the second half, to make the match a lot more even than the way it started and the result 2-1.
Therefore, the perception of Manchester City’s performance isn’t what it may have been, and Napoli haven’t been dismissed as the pub team some suggested they looked like after 20 minutes.
High marks outside of England aren’t so easy to get, with 8s not handed out for reasonably good performances.
Over in Italy, Gazzetta dello Sport weren’t too far off the French claims.
The Italian newspaper are big fans of Pep Guardiola’s work at Manchester City and often shower praise the club’s way, but they too were unimpressed with aspects of Tuesday’s performance.
Picking out ‘The Worst’ for Manchester City, Gazzetta dello Sport say that after giving away a penalty, Walker looked shaky defensively, and as the game progressed he went into his shell.
Walker was given 5.5, which is still better than Napoli’s Dries Mertens, who got 5.
‘The Best’ Manchester City player for Gazzetta was David Silva, with the Spaniard picking up a 7.
Spanish newspaper Marca gave no player more than 2 stars for the match.
