Manchester City ready for ‘crazy’ crunch month – Bernardo Silva

Bernardo Silva insisted Manchester City are ready for their crunch month after victory at Leicester.

The forward struck in the second half to earn Pep Guardiola’s side a 1-0 Premier League win on Saturday.

It opened a month where they return to the Champions League and start their Carabao Cup defence against Wycombe.

City host RB Leipzig in their first Group A game on Wednesday and travel to Paris St Germain at the end of September, while they also face title rivals Chelsea in the Premier League.

“This month is going to be crazy for us, everyone is ready,” Bernardo told mancity.com.

“There are a lot of different competitions to play, tough games. When you are in this form it is easier to keep going because players have a lot of confidence.

“It was the perfect way to start an important month. The last three games before this we played well, today again.

“We have to keep up the momentum, winning and winning and winning. We have a lot of players hungry to play minutes.

“It was a really important win, especially because we know how difficult it is to play against Leicester. We know how good they are because we played them in the Community Shield.”

Bernardo scored after 62 minutes to end City’s frustrations after Gabriel Jesus was twice denied by Kasper Schmeichel and Jack Grealish shot over.

The 27-year-old netted from an angle when Joao Cancelo’s drive was blocked by Caglar Soyuncu to leave Schmeichel stranded.

Harvey Barnes hit the crossbar and Jamie Vardy had a goal ruled out for offside early in the second half for the hosts, who have won two and lost two of their opening four games.

Defender Ryan Bertrand said: “We showed great togetherness, great resilience and great passion to keep the ball out.

“They’re a top side, but unfortunately, football does that sometimes. It’s very hard to take.

“We’re looking at each game as it comes. We’re looking to make steps every game in our fitness, our team shape, tactically, in our finishing – we’ll take that as a step forward, although the result wasn’t ideal.”

Bertrand made his league debut for the Foxes after joining on a free from Southampton having recovered from Covid-19.

“We had a great pre-season, everyone was building great fitness,” he told the club’s official website. “I was looking forward to the Wolves game but the virus kicked in and it wiped me out, to be honest – longer than expected.

“It was good to finally get back training and to come and play in front of the fans. It’s good to get those minutes in and hopefully I can build on from here.”