Julian Alvarez showed Manchester City an exciting new side to his game on Sunday night by recording two eye-catching assists in River Plate's latest victory.
Alvarez ended the night with two goals and two assists in River's 5-1 win over Union Santa Fe as his move to Manchester City draws closer.
After the game, he declared that contributing to River's build-up play and assisting are as important to him as scoring, which will encourage City ahead of his £14m move next month. His two assists on Sunday will have particularly impressed his new club as they plan how to incorporate the Argentina international into Pep Guardiola's squad.
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For River's first goal, Alvarez picked the ball up just inside the Union half as River broke forward, side-stepped a challenge cleverly, and rolled a lovely ball to split the defence and allow Braian Romero to score.
Then, in the second half, he picked the ball up 35 yards out, took a touch and chipped a delightful through-ball over the defence to meet the run of Enzo Fernandez from deep, and the striker did the rest.
Watch Alvarez's first assist:
Then, Alvarez got in on the act himself, reminding City of his on-the-shoulder abilities as a central striker. As a ball fortuitously bounced beyond the Union defence, Alvarez reacted quickest to take the ball into the area and finish clinically past the goalkeeper.
In added time, he held his run as River broke with two players against the goalkeeper. When the ball was squared to Alvarez, he chipped the ball over the advancing keeper to secure a 5-1 win for his team.
Watch Alvarez's second assist:
After the game, he said: “We needed to win, we came from three difficult games and we had to be more forceful. Today we were, we took three points that we needed.
”What were we missing? The forcefulness in the last metres, the chances we have we have to put them. We had them last game, but we weren't fine.
”I keep the last goal, which was given to me by Juanfer where I stayed hand in hand [onside], I was able to score it and it was a goal. As I always say, I try to give my best in every game, help with whatever it takes, when it comes to recovering, assisting and scoring goals, if the goals come to help the team, they are welcome.
Watch Alvarez's first goal:
”I am personally happy, all this is a result of all the work I have been doing for a long time. Many beautiful things are being given to me, I continue on this path to continue growing personally and having this joy that the people who love me like.”
Alvarez now has 16 goals and six assists for River in 20 appearances this season, and will reportedly stay until the end of their Copa Libertadores last 16 second leg on July 6. He will then link up with City for pre-season, with their first game in Houston on July 20.
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