It was a busy evening of international football on Tuesday night as the curtain raised on the 2024/25 Nations League.

A total of five members of Manchester City’s squad were in action across three national teams with four facing each other.

This was during Portugal’s 2-1 win over Croatia with Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva starting for the former and Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol making the first XI of the latter.

And it was the hosts who made a strong star when Diogo Dalot broke the deadlock on seven minutes when he unleashed an expert finish into the bottom corner from the inside of the box.

Cristiano Ronaldo then doubled their lead with just over 10 minutes remaining of the first half when he collected Nuno Mendes’ pass to fire into the roof of the net.

However, their two-goal lead didn’t last long as Dalot turned into his own net seven minutes later to half the deficit for Croatia.

That represented the game’s last game, though, as Roberto Martinez’s side began their Nations League quest with three points.

Elsewhere, Manuel Akanji played the full 90 minutes in Switzerland’s 2-0 defeat away to Denmark.

Chances were at a premium in the first half with Kasper Dolberg forcing visiting goalkeeper Gregor Kobel into a smart save down to his right.

Switzerland were then reduced to 10 players shortly after the break when Nico Elvedi was dismissed after his yellow was upgraded to red with the help of VAR for a tackle deemed dangerous.

The hosts then thought they had taken the lead when Jonas WInd found the net but had advanced into an offside position.

Murat Yakin’s side defended heroically with the help of Akanji and looked likely to gain an unlikely point as the clocked ticked past the 80 minute mark.

But Patrick Dorgu’s strike opened the scoring for Denmark in the closing stages before there were further twists in the tale.

Granit Xhaka was sent off for Switzerland soon after when receiving a second yellow card before Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s effort from the edge of the box found the bottom left corner to extend Denmark’s lead.

Taylor’s impressive City numbers so far

Saturday 5 September 2020 marked Gareth Taylor’s first match in charge of Manchester City Women.

A tenacious striker for the Club between 1998 and 2001, he returned as a coach for our youth set up, beginning with our Under-16s, before taking on the Under-18s managerial post in 2017.

The Welshman then took the reins of our women’s team in May 2020 before overseeing his first match in September of the same year – a 2-0 Barclays Women’s Super League win over Aston Villa.

Since then, he has overseen 140 games in total and guided us to two major honours in the form of the FA Cup and Continental Cup.

Throughout his tenure so far, the Blues have consistently played an affective, aesthetically pleasing style of play which has helped us relentlessly compete on three fronts this term.

And here, we take a deep dive into some of the boss’ numbers which have defined his time in charge to date.

WIN RATIO

Taylor has overseen 102 wins as City boss across 140 matches in all competitions, resulting in a win percentage of 72.8%.

During that time, we have suffered only 26 defeats and drawn 12 times.

In the Barclays Women’s Super League, the boss has guided the Blues to 65 wins throughout 88 fixtures – including 18 last year as we matched our best-ever points tally in the competition.

A total of 14 FA Cup matches have been won since Taylor’s appointment which helped us to the trophy in 2019/20 where he oversaw the last three rounds in the rearranged competition.

Finally, 17 successes have arrived in the League Cup, with City famously winning the tournament after beating Chelsea in the 2021/22

MOST APPEARANCES

In Taylor’s first season, Georgia Stanway and Ellen White were afforded the most appearances equally, with the pair missing just one of the 38 fixtures each.

Across the Welshman’s second term, Alex Greenwood played every match in the 38-game campaign while Lauren Hemp missed just one match.

Chloe Kelly and Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw featured the most last term with 30 appearances each in all competitions.

Overall, Greenwood has played the most throughout Taylor’s tenure with total outings of 124, meanwhile Steph Houghton remains our record appearance holder with 241.

In City’s 2-2 Conti Cup draw with Leicester in November 2023, Demi Stokes made her 200th appearance for the Club and is currently on 202.

Throughout 2023/24 Kelly, Mary Fowler and Yui Hasegawa made the most joint-appearances in our squad with 30 each.

GOALS SCORED

City have impressively scored 388 goals under Taylor’s tutelage – averaging 2.77 per game across the 140 played.

Our most clinical season during the boss’ tenure so far was 2021/22 when we bagged 112. In 2022/23 we netted 90 times, whereas in 2020/21 we scored 108 goals.

In the WSL, the Blues have scored 236 goals since Taylor took the reins – and at the other end of the pitch, we have conceded 120 times during his time in charge in all competitions.

Bunny has the highest scoring tally under the boss with 72 goals in all competitions since her move to the Club in 2021 and is now our highest-ever goalscorer.

And, thanks to our 6-0 Conti Cup win over Bristol City in January 2023, we surpassed the 700-goal mark as a professional outfit.

BIGGEST WIN

We have won by a scoreline of 8-0 twice during Taylor’s reign – representing our biggest margin of success during his time in charge.

The first came in an FA Cup win over Aston Villa in April 2021 at the Joie Stadium.

A Chloe Kelly hat-trick alongside goals from Ellen White, Janine Beckie, Georgia Stanway, Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis helped us to the emphatic victory.

Then, in a January 2022 FA Cup tie away at Nottingham Forest, we recorded our second 8-0 win under Taylor.

Stanway bagged a treble, Bunny grabbed a double and Caroline Weir, Filippa Angeldahl and Lauren Hemp were also on the scoresheet.

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