JULIAN ALVAREZ says he has learned a lot from playing alongside Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi.
And the Argentine international forward put it to good use with an expertly taken second half goal to put Manchester City in charge.
The recent arrival from River Plate also teed up 17-year-old full-back Rico Lewis to become the second youngest English goalscorer in this competition.
Then he capped off an impressive night by playing in Riyad Mahrez to grab a late third.
Alvarez did more than anyone to ensure that Guardiola’s proud home record in the Champions League extended to 23 games.
Their last European defeat at the Etihad was way back in 2018 and the sequence puts them neck and neck with Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.
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That had looked under threat when Rafa Mir headed Seville ahead in the first half but in the end they won at a canter.
And better still, Haaland had the night off to continue his recovery from a foot injury.
Having won their first three group matches, the next two were low key and the way this one started was no different.
Youngsters Cole Palmer and Lewis were both given a start and both tried their luck from distance early on but could not hit the target.
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Phil Foden was given a deeper midfield role so Kevin de Bruyne could have a rest.
And the England youngster whipped over a free-kick which Ruben Dias failed to connect cleanly with and bundled his effort wide.
City were given a warning when Mir climbed high to get on the end of a Marcos Acuna cross but steered his header just past the post.
Back at the other end, skipper Ilkay Gundogan played a one-two with Foden but fired his shot from a narrow angle into the side-netting.
Mir never scored in England during his spells with Wolves and Nottingham Forest but he broke his duck just after the half hour.
He outjumped full-back Sergio Gomez and looped a header into the far corner with Stefan Ortega rooted to the spot.
Guardiola took off Jack Grealish and replaced him with Rodri at half-time and City had a more solid look about them.
They were level within seven minutes of the re-start as Julian Alvarez slipped a pass into the path of Lewis.
The Bury-born youngster took it in his stride and lashed an angled drive beyond Bono.
At 17 years and 346 days, Lewis also became the youngest player to score on his first Champions League start – beating the record held by a certain Karim Benzema.
In terms of English players, only Jude Bellingham was younger when he found the net for the first time in this competition in April last year.
Surprisingly that was City’s first goal in this competition for 267 minutes after drawing a blank in Copenhagen and Dortmund.
The home side came close to going ahead minutes later as Dias thumped a header which was tipped onto the bar by Bono.
Guardiola had seen enough and threw on De Bruyne with 20 minutes remaining to try to find a winner.
It did not take the Belgian maestro long either – as his delicious pass from the right fell perfectly into the path of Alvarez.
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The Argentine calmly went round Bono before clipping his shot into the roof of the net for his fourth goal for City.
He wasn’t finished there though as he wrestled the ball off Jose Angel Carmona before slipping a pass to Mahrez who lashed home from the edge of the box.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
