{"id":157742,"date":"2026-04-05T12:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T12:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/157742\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T12:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T12:14:09","slug":"rayan-cherki-one-of-worlds-best-says-man-city-team-mate-antoine-semenyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/157742\/","title":{"rendered":"Rayan Cherki \u2018one of world\u2019s best\u2019 says Man City team-mate Antoine Semenyo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Semenyo and Cherki both made key contributions as hat-trick hero Erling Haaland fired City to a 4-0 win at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The pair combined for one of Haaland\u2019s goals before Cherki played in Semenyo to score himself in a devastating display that put City into the last four for a record-extending eighth successive season.<\/p>\n

\"ManchesterSemenyo is enjoying linking up with Cherki (Adam Davy\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the world\u2019s best,\u201d said City winger Semenyo. \u201cHe can literally do anything with the ball, so he makes my life easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that he\u2019s going to drop and he\u2019s going to try and find me in behind or play to my feet, so it just makes it easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cherki\u2019s disguised pass for Semenyo to cross for Haaland\u2019s second goal bamboozled the Liverpool defence and underlined his creative quality.<\/p>\n

Yet, as in the Carabao Cup final win over Arsenal, Cherki could not resist the occasional flick and trick once the game was won \u2013 a trait that has previously drawn a frosty response from Pep Guardiola.<\/p>\n

The manager\u2019s view this time was unclear as he served a touchline ban and handed media duties to assistant Pep Lijnders.<\/p>\n

There was admonishment for the Frenchman from the bench though after he swapped shirts with Hugo Ekitike after being substituted late on. Cherki put the shirt on before full time and was immediately told to take it off.<\/p>\n

\"ManchesterManager Guardiola\u2019s reactions were largely out of view as he served a touchline ban (Mike Egerton\/PA)<\/p>\n

Moments like that add to Cherki\u2019s maverick reputation, but for Semenyo, it is his creativity and skill that stand out most.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember my first day in training,\u201d said Semenyo. \u201cJust some of the skills he was pulling up, I thought, \u2018What kind of player is he?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a top player. Creative with the ball and we love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

City\u2019s victory marked a strong return after the international break and highlighted their determination to finish the season strongly with a domestic treble in their sights.<\/p>\n

Semenyo said: \u201cI feel like there\u2019s so much aspiration, so many goals that we want to achieve this season. There\u2019s more to come and just have to keep going.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the most important part of the season now, so we just want to win as many games as we can.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game\u2019s the final now, so we just have to keep pushing and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Semenyo and Cherki both made key contributions as hat-trick hero Erling Haaland fired City to a 4-0 win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-157742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}