![](\"https:\/\/www.soccernews.com\/wp-content\/themes\/SN\/images\/300x250_HR.gif\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nPep Guardiola labelled Rayan Cherki an \u201cexceptional player\u201d after his stunning goal in a 2-0 win over Brentford helped Manchester City into the semi-finals of the EFL Cup. <\/p>\n
Cherki opened the scoring in the 32nd minute at Etihad Stadium, picking out the top-right corner with his weaker right foot after a neat bit of skill on the edge of the box. <\/p>\n
The Frenchman\u2019s fine finish was followed up by Savinho\u2019s 67th-minute strike, which deflected off the sliding Kristoffer Ajer and looped over the helpless Hakon Valdimarsson. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a fine start to life in a City shirt for Cherki, with only Erling Haaland (30) and Phil Foden (18) registering more goal involvements in all competitions than his 13. <\/p>\n
Against Brentford, only Savinho had more shots (four to three) and attempted more dribbles (12 to three) than Cherki, though Guardiola was keen to applaud the latter\u2019s display. <\/p>\n
\u201cClose to the 18-yard box of the opponent, he is an exceptional player,\u201d Guardiola said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a fantastic goal. A blind guy, a blind woman can realise it is not necessary to be a journalist or a manager to realise he is a fantastic, fantastic player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw it many times with Phil [Foden] this type of goal, with Kevin [De Bruyne] before, so I am happy that it opened the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Savinho also put his name forward for a regular starting spot with the Citizens, having only started 12 of the 23 games he has featured in across all competitions in 2025-26. <\/p>\n
The Brazilian ended the contest with team-high totals for shots (four), successful dribbles (seven), touches in the opposition box (seven), and duels won (11), with both of his goals this season coming in the EFL Cup. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I like is that he is always going all the time,\u201d Guardiola added on Savinho\u2019s performance. \u201cThe final decision can be better but always as a reward for his work ethic, and he goes, and he goes all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Brentford, meanwhile, they were unable to really trouble City\u2019s defence, registering a measly expected goals (xG) total of 0.1 from their three attempts at James Trafford\u2019s net.<\/p>\n
However, Bees boss Keith Andrews believes that Guardiola\u2019s men should have been reduced to 10 men in the 16th minute of the contest when a last-man tackle from Abdukodir Khusanov on Kevin Schade was only deemed worthy of a yellow card. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very quick to defend officials generally, it\u2019s such a difficult job, but that was one they didn\u2019t get right,\u201d Andrews said of the decision. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe explanation was that the touch being too far away from goal doesn\u2019t quite sit well with me after watching it back because he\u2019s clean through on goal. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s a red card, it\u2019s a big advantage for us obviously, but we\u2019ll never know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite that moment, Andrews was pleased with his side\u2019s display, adding: \u201cWe showed a lot of courage, a lot of conviction and bravery in how we played and we had to<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were missing some players from the front line. We had one day\u2019s prep after Leeds where we changed the system, how we built, how we pressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s testament to the players, how intelligent they are, how adaptable they are and how versatile they are.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt there were moments where we could have punished City, we just didn\u2019t quite take the extra pass, but we restricted them to very little.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read More<\/a>SoccerNews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soccer Pep Guardiola labelled Rayan Cherki an \u201cexceptional player\u201d after his stunning goal in a 2-0 win over Brentford helped Manchester City into the semi-finals of the EFL Cup. Cherki opened the scoring in the 32nd minute at Etihad Stadium, picking out the top-right corner with his weaker right foot after a neat bit of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":878328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30510,92753,2005],"tags":[6699,20235],"class_list":{"0":"post-878327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-guardiola","8":"category-lauds","9":"category-soccer","10":"tag-guardiola","11":"tag-lauds"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}