Raheem Sterling hailed as Man City's 'X-factor' on record-breaking night

Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves described Raheem Sterling as Manchester City’s X-factor on a night in which he entered the club’s history books.

Sterling moved into the top 10 of City’s all-time leading goal-scorers, and he did it in some style against Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday night.

The England international added the gloss in the Blues’ 5-0 demolition in Portugal as they all-but secured their place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Sterling curled home a sumptuous 20-yard effort into the top corner to finish things off in the second half, and in the process reach another milestone with the club.

The strike took him to 127 goals for City, which now puts him outright tenth on the all-time list for the club – and he looks well set to climb further before the end of the season.

Sterling’s latest achievement is testament to the turnaround he’s enjoyed this season, having found himself out of favour at the start of the campaign as questions were asked about his future.

He’s now bang in form once again, following on from his hat-trick against Norwich at the weekend, leading to BT Sport’s pundits singing his praises.

“Raheem is the X-factor for this team because Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden are all beautiful ballers,” Hargreaves said.

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“Raheem is the one with his athleticism and his pace - I think he is so unique to this team and when he’s on song City are a completely different kettle of fish.”

Ferdinand added: “He’s so different to many others and you’d love to have him in your team because he gives you that winger x-factor - he can go on the outside, inside and run behind - but he can also be a fox in the