Perhaps the idea remained that Manchester City played, against Sporting, with an overwhelming majority of second lines. Is not true. Only two, among the 11 most used in 2021/2022, were not available: the injured Rúben Dias and the sickly João Cancelo. De Bruyne and Rodri, by choice, did not leave the bench.
Rúben Amorim, in turn, could not count on three of the 11 players with the most minutes this season: the suspended Matheus Nunes and the injured Palhinha and Pedro Gonçalves. And there were two goalkeepers on the bench (João Virgínia and André Paulo), a player without minutes in the first team (Renato Veiga), a 16-year-old boy (Dário Essugo) and the 18th most used in 2021/2022 ( Reuben Vinegar).
The value differential continued, therefore, to be tremendous. Starting right from the start with experience. City’s 11 starters totaled 502 Champions League games against just 125 of Sporting’s 11. Fernandinho (99) and Zinchenko (26) had, together, as many encounters as the leonine starting 11.
Furthermore, of course, in a club with the financial power of the citizens, the difference in market value continued to be abysmal: 490.5 million euros for Guardiola’s starting 11, 122.5 million for Amorim’s, according to the website transfermarkt.
That is, 368 million euros separating the two elevens. If we also add the value of the substitutes used (Edwards, Nuno Santos, Esgaio, Feddal and Rodrigo Ribeiro for Sporting; Mahrez, Mbete-Tabu, James McAtee and Scott Carson for City) the difference increases to 378 million euros. Phil Foden (85) and Laporte (45) are worth the same as… the 11 lions that started the game.
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