After Barcelona were left down on their haunches by S.L.Benfica’s 3-0 victory at Estàdio da Luz in the Champions League on 30th September,it was Darwin Nunez who left people speechless making light work of Barcelona’s backline which was previously torn apart by Bayern Munich.
Manchester City, it seems, kept a close watch on the proceedings.
After a public statement by his agent, Edgardo Lasalvia, “Darwin is ready to play all around the globe “ hints about the player’s aspirations to play for European Giants in the upcoming years and him receiving offers from many top clubs, the heat turned on between the Red Devils and Sky blues in recent times though the latter being confident of landing him, thanks to their healthy transfer relationship with the Portuguese club.
It seems that the Uruguayan forward had already been in the future plans of Manchester City according to an article featured in Portuguese newspaper AAbola about Pep Guardiola’s Scouting team noticed at the night which saw him score a brace against the Catalans. He turned the heat right from the start after scoring in the 3rd minute with a ball that seemed a bit too much for Barca’s goalkeeper at the near post before dribbling past Eric Garcia who himself is having a miserable start to the season.
In the dying minutes of the game, he earned himself a penalty after a suspicious handball by Sergiño Dest which resulted in adding one more goal to the 22-year old’s ever-growing tally.
On the other hand Manchester City returned to the Etihad after a persevering week on the road which started with a reverse fixture of last year’s Champions League final resulting in a Famous 1-0 victory over Chelsea at the Stamford Bridge, then a 0-2 defeat In hands of PSG in the Champions League and a scintillating 2-2 draw against Liverpool which capped off a salient week for Pep’s men in a rather commanding fashion as not many teams comeback with points from Anfield.
With Manchester City having very few to choose from for the number 9 position, the likes of Darwin would be a genuine option to occupy that. However with Darwin’s words of “I want to repay the trust of Benfica by guiding them towards more titles”, is there a prospect of him leaving the Portuguese club in near feature?