Pep Guardiola highlights importance of Gabriel Jesus' return from injury

ByGraham Ruthven

Published 04/11/2020 at 07:15 GMT

Gabriel Jesus made his return to action having missed the last two months through injury and scored in the 3-0 win over Olympiacos. The Brazilian forward was injured in the opening game of the season against Wolves, with City's injury troubles exacerbated by the injury issues of Sergio Aguero over the early part of the 2020/21 campaign.

Pep Guardiola has highlighted the importance of Gabriel Jesus’s return to action, with the Brazilian forward scoring in his first appearance for Manchester City since September.

Jesus came off the bench for the final 21 minutes of City’s Champions League match against Olympiacos, finding the back of the net from a tight angle to make sure of a 3-0 victory for the home side.

The 23-year-old suffered a leg injury in the opening match of the season against Wolves, with an injury to Sergio Aguero only adding to Guardiola’s problems in attack.

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Ferran Torres has been deployed as a makeshift centre forward, with the 20-year-old scoring in each of his first Champions League appearances for City, but the return of Jesus was welcomed by Guardiola.

"It was important of course,” Guardiola said after the win over Olympiacos. “The fact he’s back is so important and good news, especially for the striker to score a brilliant goal. There were good things tonight, I'm delighted with most parts of the game and happy that Gabriel is back.”

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Jesus spoke of his relief to be back on a football pitch after two months out of action, describing his goal against the Greek visitors to the Etihad Stadium as “an amazing finish.”

“It’s so good for me to be back,” he said. “When I got injured, I wasn’t happy, I worked a lot to recover quickly because I want to be on the pitch and helping my team-mates.

“The guys have done so well and I’m so happy to come back and score a goal. It was a good ball and a great play by the team. Kevin found me and I think it was an amazing finish.”

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