Blondie Blue's night - Haaland’s record and King Kev’s return

This clash was expected to be one of the highlights of the evening’s program – and perhaps it was, at least until Napoli were reduced to ten men. From that moment on, the game moved in only one direction, with Manchester City cruising to a routine victory.

City were the first to threaten in the 4th minute when Ruben Dias tried his luck from distance, firing well over from 30 meters.

Napoli came close in the 17th minute after a corner found Beukema, whose header was denied by Gianluigi Donnarumma. Just a minute later, the game took a dramatic turn: Erling Haaland broke free of Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo, who brought him down. While the referee initially waved play on, VAR intervened, and after a review, Di Lorenzo was shown a straight red card.

City tried to make the most of the man advantage. In the 24th minute, Haaland rose above Buongiorno to meet a cross from Reijnders, but his header drifted just over. Forced into a tactical reshuffle, Antonio Conte substituted De Bruyne—who was facing his former club—for Olivera in the 26th minute.

The hosts pressed harder as the half wore on. Phil Foden’s strike in the 31st minute was well kept out by Milinkovic-Savic, who then denied Rodri in the 38th with another fine save after a rebound fell to the midfielder 20 meters out.

City piled on the pressure before the break. In the 41st minute, Nico O’Reilly saw his shot stopped by the Napoli keeper, and just seconds later Josko Gvardiol’s header from a corner was also brilliantly saved. Deep into stoppage time, Reijnders fired again, with Politano’s deflection almost wrong-footing the keeper—but Milinkovic-Savic once more came to Napoli’s rescue.

Manchester City came out strong after the break, with Phil Foden nearly breaking the deadlock in the 50th minute when his left-footed shot from the edge of the box narrowly missed the far post.

Just six minutes later, City finally found a way through Napoli’s defense. Foden delivered a precise cross into the middle, where Erling Haaland rose highest and beat the tall visiting goalkeeper with a perfectly placed header to make it 1-0. The goal is HERE!

In the 65th minute, the hosts doubled their advantage thanks to a brilliant solo effort from Jeremy Doku. The Belgian forward dazzled with a slalom run past several defenders before calmly finishing past the keeper to give City a commanding 2-0 lead. You can see the goal HERE!

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 1

Tuesday

Athletic Bilbao - Arsenal 0-2 (0-0)

/Martinelli 72, Trossard 87/

PSV - St. Gilloise 1-3 (0-2)

/Van Bommel 90 - David 9 pen, Ait El Hadj 39, Mac Allister 81/

Benfica - Qarabag 2-3 (2-1)

/Barrenechea 6, Pavlidis 16 - Andrade 30, Duran 48, Kashchuk 86/

Juventus - Dortmund 4-4 (0-0)

/Yildiz 64, Vlahovic 68, 90+4, Kelly 90+6 - Adeyemi 52, Nmecha 65, Couto 75, Bensebaini 83 pen/

Real Madrid - Olympique Marseille 2-1 (1-1)

/Mbappe 29 pen, 81 pen - Weah 22/

Tottenham - Villarreal 1-0 (1-0)

/Luiz Junior 4 og/

Wednesday

Olympiacos - Paphos 0-0

Slavia Prague - Bodo 2-2 (1-0)

/Mbodji 23, 74 - Bassi 78, Fet 90/

Ajax - Inter 0-2 (0-1)

/Thuram 42, 47/

Bayern - Chelsea 3-1 (2-1)

/Chalobah 20 og, Kane 27 pen, 63 - Palmer 29/

Liverpool - Atletico Madrid 3-2 (2-1)

/Robertson 4, Salah 6, Van Dijk 90+2 - Llorente 45+3, 81/

PSG - Atalanta 4-0 (2-0)

/Marquinhos 3, Khvicha 39, Mendes 51, Ramos 90+1/

Thursday

Club Brugge - Monaco 4-1 (3-0)

/Tresoldi 32, Onyedika 39, Vanaken 42, Diakhon 75 - Ansu Fati 90+1/

Copenhagen - Leverkusen 2-2 (1-0)

/Larsson 9, Robert 86 - Grimaldo 82, Hatzidiakos 90+1 (og)/

Eintr. Frankfurt - Galatasaray 5-1 (3-1)

/Sanchez (og), Uzun 45+2, Singo 45+4 (og), Burkardt 66, Knauff 75 - Akgun 8/

Man. City - Napoli 2-0 (0-0)

/Haaland 56, Doku 65/

Newcastle - Barcelona 1-2 (0-0)

/Gordon 90 - Rashford 58, 67/

Sporting - Kairat Almaty 4-1 (1-0)

/Trincao 44, 65, Santos 67, Quenda 68 - Edmilson 86/