Unheralded O’Reilly boosts Man City’s Champions League hopes in Premier League

By Canadian Press on April 19, 2025.

Nico O’Reilly is proving to be an unlikely trump card in Manchester City’s bid to secure Champions League qualification from the Premier League.

The 20-year-old midfielder popped up to score the first of City’s two late goals in a 2-0 win at Everton as the soon-to-be-deposed champion climbed to fourth place on Saturday.

The teams finishing in the top five will qualify for next season’s Champions League and City is far from sure of being among them after a huge regression following an unprecedented four straight titles under Pep Guardiola.

O’Reilly, who came through the City academy, had barely featured for City this season, until a defensive injury crisis led to Guardiola playing the youngster out of position at left back.

Not only has he been defensively sound, he is also scoring. He netted in a win over Crystal Palace last weekend and again against Everton in the 84th minute. Mateo Kovacic added on in the second minute of stoppage time.

City went above Nottingham Forest, which dropped to fifth place in its improbable bid to get into the Champions League. Forest visits Tottenham on Monday.

Later Saturday, third-placed Newcastle plays away to seventh-placed Aston Villa.

Southampton’s target

Already-relegated Southampton will not be the outright worst team the Premier League has ever seen.

A stoppage-time equalizer by Lesley Ugochukwu earned the Saints a 1-1 draw at West Ham and nudged the last-placed team to 11 points — the same number Derby County had in the 2007-08 season. That remains the lowest points total in a single Premier League.

Southampton has five more games to get ahead of Derby’s total.

Jarrod Bowen opened the scoring for fifth-from-last West Ham.

Richards sees red

United States defender Chris Richards was sent off for picking up two yellow cards in Crystal Palace’s 0-0 draw with Bournemouth.

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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Steve Douglas, The Associated Press