Man City are now placed 9th in the UCL table as they eased their way past 10-men Napoli. Striker, Erling Haaland scored his 50th goal on his 49th appearance in the competition, thus reaching half a century of goals in at least 13 appearances less than any other player in the history of the UEFA Champions League.
The English side made the most of having an extra man for more than an hour as the Italian champions were reduced to 10 men early in the second half when captain Di Lorenzo was dismissed for a foul on Haaland, and ex-City player De Bruyne was subsequently withdrawn.
Despite dominating the first half, and an excellent performance by Milinkovic-Savic who made several saves to keep the scores level, the host were able to get a breakthrough in the 56th minute when Haaland became the fastest man to 50 Champions League goals as he headed in a chipped pass from Foden.
City’s cruise to victory was sealed nine minutes later when Jeremy Doku dribbled past three men into a scoring position and slotted the ball under Milinkovic-Savic into the bottom-right corner.
Fans are optimistic on City’s chances for the top prize this season as the players are on peak form.
City will welcome league contenders Arsenal, this weekend while Napoli, who have made 13 visits to England without a win will head home to face Pisa on Monday in the Serie A.
Lineups
Manchester City stuck with the Sam XI that started the Manchester derby. Donnarumma made his first Champions League appearance for city, while Bernardo Silva started his 323rd game for City and Rodri got his first Champions League start for exactly a year. In City’s long injury list were Omar Marmoush, Ryan Cherki, John Stones, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Mateo Kovacic.
While Napoli remained unchanged naming their oldest ever starting XI in the competition with De. Bruyne returning alongside McTominay and Hojlund. On Napoli’s injury list was center-back Amir Rrahmani who was replaced by Beukema.
What highlights of the game here:
