Alvarez's screamer has City dreaming again: Moment of the Week

Non-stop action. Great goals. Controversies galore. Sensational passes. Unreal drama. European football rarely lacks for talking points after any given weekend of football, but with so much happening it can often be hard to focus on the biggest moments.

ESPN India attempts to single out one moment from all the action across Europe's top 5 leagues (league action only) that lit up the weekend.

They'd been missing by a whisker all season long.

Julian Alvarez specialises in long range goals - that ought to have been written in big, bold, underlined letters in the scouting report that Pep Guardiola received when Manchester City opted to sign the young Argentinian striker. Witness his heroics for River Plate against rivals Boca Juniors, when he let fly from distance with the keeper having no chance

Correction - Julian Alvarez specializes in important long-range goals. You'd think River would have asked for more than the €21.4m they received from City for Alvarez's services.

And yet, they'd been missing by a whisker all season long. Until now. With the clock reading 35:50 and the scores tied at 1-1, Julian Alvarez let fly, and scored a special goal. But what had led up to it was arguably even more beautiful.

It began, as so many of City's moves do, with Rodri spraying a pass sideways. The target was Riyad Mahrez in space, starting off a fast transition. Palhinha and Andreas Pereira, so pivotal to Fulham's fortunes this season, recognise the danger and sprint back, but Mahrez has already squeezed it through to Alvarez in the middle of the park.

The Argentinian striker takes a touch, and another, allowing Palhinha to close him down and Tosin Adarabioyo to get in position to block his shot. In most circumstances in football, that's the danger snuffed out. Yet, Alvarez dummies his shot and changes direction with startling speed - sending Palhinha, Adarabioyo and Pereira into the deepest bowels of Craven Cottage while he now seemingly has the entire middle of the pitch to himself.

There's enough time to pause, make and consume a mid-game cuppa with the space Alvarez has engineered. However, Issa Diop knows what's coming. As does Bernd Leno. The shot's coming, but it's at 0.05 xG - only 5 in every 100 shots from that position will find the net - and Alvarez's been missing them all season long. Yet, this is the conviction the best forwards possess - who gives a flying toss about the odds?

Julian Alvarez let's fly, but this time the whisker has conveniently located itself on the underside of the bar, not over. The ball arcs beautifully past a desperate last-ditch attempt at a block by Diop and over a despairing Leno's head, nestling in the top corner.

2-1. Manchester City lead, and will win. Manchester City now lead Arsenal, and will win the Premier League title, and maybe even the treble.

As important goals go, this wasn't too bad. It's not like Alvarez had just scored some pivotal goals in a small, barely-known tournament called the FIFA World Cup a few months ago. No wonder then that he's been backup to a record-breaking striker as well as City's creator-in-chief, with only 18 starts from his 42 appearances this season. €21.4m? City were robbed.

Right.

Alvarez would comfortably walk into the starting XI of every other team in the Premier League - heck, even into that of title rivals Arsenal. He's not just a scorer of certified bangers, the box is also his realm like a certain Argentinian City legend.

Alvarez replaced Sergio Aguero in the national side, dovetailing with Lionel Messi in a way not even the recent retiree ever did. At City, Guardiola has even utilised him as a replacement for Kevin de Bruyne on occasion, with Alvarez's energetic pressing and ability to thread a pass proving the perfect foil to Erling Haaland. And well, there's the day job as the leading man.

So, City have themselves an Aguero-De Bruyne-Haaland hybrid... and he's a backup. For €21.4m.

It's not even like he's a fresh-faced youngster without pedigree - he's faced the cauldrons of the Boca-River Superclasico, the madness of the Copa Libertadores and was the World Cup final mentioned?

The soundtrack to Argentina's World Cup winning campaign (the Muchachos song) has this most-viewed, most-sung line:

'Muchachos, ahora nos volvimos a ilusionar' (Guys, now we're dreaming/excited again)

In Alvarez, City have plenty to dream/be excited about... City, after all, have also been missing out on their most coveted prize by a whisker. Maybe this time, it could be another golazo from their muchacho that earns them that prize.