Foden 'going in the right direction' after Champions League hat-trick

Phil Foden believes he is "going in the right direction" but is far from being back to his best despite scoring a hat-trick in Manchester City's 5-1 win over AEK Athens. 

Foden starred in Tuesday's victory at Etihad Stadium, becoming the third Englishman to score a hat-trick and assist a goal in a Champions League match, along with Wayne Rooney (September 2004 against Fenerbahce, for Manchester United) and Raheem Sterling (October 2019 against Atalanta, for City).

Elliot Anderson got things going in the 12th minute before Foden combined with Rico Lewis to double the Citizens' lead just before Willy Delajod blew the whistle for half-time. 

AEK reduced the deficit through Stavros Pilios seven minutes after the restart, but a moment of individual brilliance from Rayan Cherki quickly restored the hosts' two-goal lead. 

Foden sealed the win with two goals 11 minutes, the latter seeing him combine with Lewis once again to complete his hat-trick, and score in back-to-back appearances for the club, having gone 35 outings without finding the back of the net. 

Before lining up against AEK, Foden had managed just three goal involvements (one goal, two assists) in seven appearances across all competitions this season, but he starred in the absence of Erling Haaland, who watched on from the bench. 

In fact, it was City's first Champions League hat-trick since March 2023 when Haaland scored five against RB Leipzig, though Foden was just thrilled to help his team to victory. 

"Slowly, but surely," Foden told TNT Sports when asked if he was getting back to his best. "Still got a long way to go, but I'm going in the right direction.

"Scoring along the way definitely helps. I just want to keep working hard and trying to be the best I can for the manager and the team.

"I enjoyed that a lot. The lads were great again. We showed determination again. It wasn't pretty at times.

"I thought we stuck at the gameplan, we kept going and in the end we broke them down."

Foden's indifferent run of form over the last two seasons saw him miss out on a spot in Thomas Tuchel's World Cup squad this summer, with England going on to finish third. 

But Maresca, who led City to their 10th win in 12 matches in all competitions this season, said he never doubted Foden's talent since replacing Pep Guardiola this summer. 

"I've said since day one, I consider him one of the best English players," Maresca told a news conference.

"For different reasons in the last three years he was not good enough, but I know how good he is so I'm trying to help him because we are sure he is going to help us this season."

Maresca is now one of six managers in the Premier League era (since 1992-93) with 10 wins in as few as 12 games with a club, along with Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea (12), Guardiola at Man City (10), Unai Emery at Arsenal (12), Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Man Utd (11) and Arne Slot at Liverpool (11).

But more importantly, City returned to winning ways in the Champions League having lost 4-2 to defending champions Paris Saint-Germain on home soil. 

And aged 24 years and 63 days, Maresca named City's youngest ever line-up for a Champions League game, and he praised his talented youngsters for playing their part in delivering a "complete" performance. 

"For the academy, I think there are three players from the academy that made their debut tonight, so it is nice news for the academy and for the club," Maresca said. 

"I think it was a complete performance. It was not easy, especially after the PSG game.

"So we had two games, Ipswich and today that we needed to win and, yes, we did our job. I think again, we concede the goal in transition, but probably could have made something better in that situation.

"Again, we scored five. We could have probably scored more, but happy because some of the players were not playing many minutes. They were ready and this is important.

"To be honest, it is the best feeling for any manager when you make many changes, but at the end the performance is good, so happy for especially them."