Another Manchester City player was in action at Euro 2024 today – and local media outlets were impressed with his performance.
Manchester City stars have started the tournament fairly well out in Germany.
On Saturday, Manuel Akanji gave an assured performance for Switzerland in their 3-1 win over Hungary. This was followed by a good display by Rodri for Spain against Croatia.
Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol didn’t have their best outings against their City teammate.
But today, there was another really impressive display from a City player.
Nathan Ake featured as a left-back for the Netherlands in their 2-1 victory over Poland – and local media outlets were left impressed with his performance.
Nathan Ake catches the eye in first Euro 2024 appearance for Netherlands
The Netherlands are in a potentially tricky group, but have got off to a great start by beating Poland.
France are obviously a top side and are expected to go through, and they take on Austria this evening.
So it was important for the Netherlands to get a positive result today – and they were able to do that with thanks to Ake.
Ake featured at left-back for his country, and really enjoyed himself. In the first-half, he supplied four key passes which is the most by any player in the tournament so far.
In the second-half, Ake’s probing did eventually materialise into a goal for the Dutch.
It was his ball from the left side that found its way through to striker Wout Weghorst. It took a slight deflection on the way through, but the goal would not have happened without his vision.
Dutch outlets lapped up Ake’s display, with Voetbal International awarding him a 7.5 out of 10. This was the joint-highest rating along with Stefan de Vrij.
Voetbal Primeur gave him 8/10, and said: “The vice-captain of the Dutch team is almost impossible to catch on a mistake. Aké played it safe as a left back, but was of great importance in Weghorst’s crucial 1-2.”
Goal were a little more impressed, giving him 9/10 and saying: “Basically a third centre-back when the Netherlands were in possession, and made a couple of excellent interventions. Also caused problems when he did step forward, and he ended up with assists for both goals.”
Nathan Ake is still so underrated
This was a cracking opening display at Euro 2024 from Ake and it’s great to see him coming in for praise from a lot of neutrals.
Ake is such a consistent performer back at City.
He arrived at the club for a fee of around £41 million and plenty of people were very surprised the club paid that amount of money.
Ake had just been relegated with Bournemouth, but City clearly saw a player who could help them
After taking a bit of time to break into the team, Ake is now one of City’s most dependable performers and very rarely makes mistakes. Pep Guardiola knows he can play him as a left-sided centre-back or left-back and get at least a 7/10 performance from him.
