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Rico Lewis Committed to taking advantage of any opportunity to influence Manchester City Midfield.
The England international did just that with a strong performance in City’s 2-0 win Villarreal In the Champions League on Tuesday.
Most of the 20-year-old’s travels have come at right-back, but the manager pep guardiola Giving him a chance in his preferred central position at the Estadio de la Ceramica.
In his fourth start of the season, he responded with an energetic performance and linked up well with teammates, notably providing the assist for Erling Haaland’s opener.
“There’s nothing better than playing and obviously I’m happy playing in midfield,” he said. City Academy graduate. “The most important thing is that we got three points so no complaints from my side.
“Obviously it’s difficult (to get in), but I was so excited that it masked that difficulty. I knew I needed to go and prove a point.
“I needed to prove myself because I always wanted to play in midfield and talk about it all the time. When I get a chance, I want to take it.
“It was a tough game – they’re a good team – but I think I got the spots and I got the assists, so I can’t really ask for more than that.”
Lewis may have looked comfortable in his role alongside captain Bernardo Silva and Nico Gonzalez, but he insists it is far from a straightforward responsibility.
“It didn’t feel like it, I was so tired,” he said. “After 10 minutes I was thinking, ‘I don’t think I’ll make it to half-time’, but the fundamentals will always be there.
“You can’t play five games in a row, but the team is so good you can fit in. We do so much in training, you know the spaces.
“You may play or not play, but everyone knows where everyone is going. It’s a good sign that we already have that kind of structure in place and it will only progress.”
City took control when Haaland latched onto Lewis’ cutback after 16 minutes. It was the Norwegian’s 15th goal of the campaign and a remarkable 24th in just 14 appearances for club and country.
It was the 12th consecutive game in which he scored and his 53rd goal in the Champions League, moving him to 10th on the list of the competition’s top scorers.
Silva doubled the lead with a powerful header before halftime and victory seemed not in doubt, although the night could have been uncomfortable if Villarreal had capitalized on one of the handful of second-half chances.
Lewis said: “The performance that comes with a result like this, helps more than you think.
“You can win 1-0 and it will be a bit disappointing and you can be happy knowing that the performance was not good. But to have a performance like this with a clean sheet and two goals is amazing.”