Mat's free run at right-back under threat

NUNES FACES CHALLENGE WHEN DEFENDER RETURNS

- By TYRONE MARSHALL

Pep Guardiola

MATHEUS Nunes might have looked on enviously at Rico Lewis on Tuesday night. A midfielder forced into a right-back role finally unleashed back in his favoured position.

It says plenty about both players that when the teamsheet dropped at Estadio de la Ceramica, there was never any doubt it was going to be Nunes at right-back and Lewis in midfield.

Nunes might have been signed as a £53m midfielder, but Pep Guardiola has long since abandoned any attempts to find a role for him there.

Of his 81 appearances, only 27 have come in a central midfield role and it’s nearly a year since he started a game centrally, in the chaotic Champions League draw with Feyenoord at the Etihad.