Northern Ireland's Charles hoping to catch Guardiola's eye

Shea Charles wants to force his way into Manchester City's first team after setting down a marker in Northern Ireland's midfield.

Charles was one of the stand-out performers as he earned his fifth senior cap in Thursday's 2-0 Euro 2024 qualifying win away to San Marino, earning praise from Michael O'Neill for his assured use of the ball.

But Charles is yet to make his City debut and has only once even made Pep Guardiola's bench, when he was an unused substitute in the first leg of their Champions League tie away to RB Leipzig in February, a match which finished 1-1 before Erling Haaland scored five in a 7-0 rout back in Manchester.

"At the moment I'm just going to see out the season and we'll see what happens," Charles said.

"Hopefully, I'd love to stay at City. That's obviously the main target, but you never know, so we'll see.

"It will be difficult (to get into the side), but I'm confident in my own abilities. Training with them, learning from them all the time, it's just a great experience."

O'Neill said after Thursday's match that Charles is "at the best club to learn how to be a footballer" as he works under Guardiola, and the 19-year-old is trying to soak up as much as he can from his illustrious team-mates.

"It's more with the likes of Fernandinho before he left, Rodri now, Kalvin Phillips as well now, because they play in my position," he added.

"Watching them, learning, asking questions, that's the main thing. The reading of the game - game intelligence and a good range of passing is really important."

Those were precisely the attributes that most impressed O'Neill in San Marino as Charles did a good job of filling some of the biggest shoes in the Northern Ireland side - occupying Steven Davis' role at the base of