How Raheem Sterling has saved his best form for the Champions League this season

Raheem Sterling scored his 20th Champions League goal against Real Madrid in the last round, becoming just the sixth English player to reach that milestone in the competition's modern format.

Sterling has enjoyed another excellent individual season for Manchester City, and has been especially productive in the more open games on offer in Europe.

Although we should be cautious about drawing firm conclusions from a smaller sample of minutes, Sterling's shots per 90 minutes, expected goals per 90, expected assists per 90, key passes per 90 and shot created actions per 90 are all higher in Champions League football than domestically. At the very least, there should be no more questions about Sterling's ability to perform on the biggest stage.

Sterling is averaging a quite exceptional 1.21 expected goals and assists combined per 90 minutes in the Champions League, which makes him City's most dangerous attacker in the competition. Better even than Sergio Aguero's 1.16 and Kevin De Bruyne's 0.77.

Only Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski and Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe have scored more than Sterling's six goals in the tournament, and Sterling has potentially three more games to add to that tally.

The first of those is a quarter-final against Lyon on Saturday night. If Lyon continue to operate with a back three - which proved successful in their last-16 second leg at Juventus when they qualified on away goals - there could be ample space for Sterling to exploit.

A back three tends to work well against two strikers - which Juventus had in Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo - because of the basic numerical advantage. There is an extra defender to mop up, enabling his partners to go tight to the attackers, and also an extra passing option when the opposition front two try to press high.

However, a back three can be risky against teams who play with one centre forward or a front three. Either the wide forwards come inside and drop between the lines - leaving two defenders with no one to mark and midfield outnumbered - or they stay high and wide and create three one-on-ones against the back three.

We saw evidence of this in the FA Cup final a fortnight ago. Both Arsenal and Chelsea lined up in a 3-4-3, but with contrasting profiles in the inside forward positions. In the first 15 minutes, Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic dropped off Arsenal's wide centre-backs and found lots of space behind their midfield. In the remainder of the game, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe tested Chelsea's wide centre-backs down the sides, running on to direct balls over the top and always threatening. The same formation, but contrasting offensive strategies and both worked well at different times.

Sterling will be against Lyon defender Jason Denayer in City's left channel, and can cause all kinds of problems if left isolated. Pep Guardiola has added further tactical nuances to Sterling's game, using him as a running forward against Real Madrid looking to exploit space in behind when Real defenders were attracted to City's false nine. It will be fascinating to see what plan he has for Sterling this time.