Manchester City 2-0 Napoli
Erling Haaland 56′, Jérémy Doku 65′
For their opening game in this year’s Champions League, Manchester City and Napoli gave us two different faces as the Citizens dominated by far the Italian side. We could have expect a very tactical game between two of the most iconic soccer managers in Pep Guardiola and Antonio Conte. But the difference between both teams was too high.
After 20 minutes well defended by Napoli, their captain Giovanni di Lorenzo got ejected after a foul as the last defender on Erling Haaland who was about to take a 1-on-1 shot against Milinkovic-Savic who made a total of 6 saves in the game. At the break both teams were neck and neck.
In the second half, Pep Guardiola’s players moved on the next stage as their chances got more and more relevant. at the 56′ minute, Phil Foden made a magnificent lobed pass to Erling Haaland who finished with a header. The Norwegian scored his 6th goal of the season and is now the fastest player to reach 50 goals in the Champions League (49 games).
10 minutes later (65th minute), Jérémy Doku scored Manchester City’s second goal with a brilliant solitary rush.
Manchester City are in back-to-back wins after their previous game against Manchester United, Napoli lost for the first time this season.
The big story around this match was the return of Manchester City legend Kevin de Bruyne at the Etihad Stadium. Unfortunately for him and football fans, his coach Antonio Conte decided to sent him off at the 26th minute after Giovanni di Lorenzo’s red card.