Serge Gnabry
With Serge Gnabry having been withdrawn after 67 minutes by Vincent Kompany in favor of Lennart Karl, one may think that it wasn’t the best of evenings for the veteran German forward. Be that as it may, it was Gnabry who produced the two most impressive moments of individual attacking brilliance on the evening.
Deep into first-half added time, with his team trailing 1-0 and still struggling to find a breakthrough, Gnabry produced, not one, but two moments of magic in the same passage of play to score what, to date, is definitely a candidate for goal-of-the- season. To score the goal, the 30-year-old attacker first delicately chipped the ball over the tackle of a defender before playing the ball into the ground to ensure that it bounced over the goalkeeper, who had the first post covered, and into the back of the net.
Despite being directly involved in the turnover that led to Koln’s goal, based on his show of strength in character to atone for his earlier mistake and inspire the comeback with an amazing goal, Gnabry deserves his flowers.
Honorable mentions go out to Leon Goretzka and Aleksandar Pavlovic, who provided an effective midfield double pivot with Goretzka being a noticeable force going forward. Hiroki Ito also deserves praise for surviving yet another injury scare and then later giving it his all to keep the ball in play when he set up Kim for the second goal. Last but not least, kudos to Lennart Karl for another show of veteran-like composure in scoring the third goal.
Stats courtesy- Sofascore