Blues eventually break down 10-man Napoli to secure opening Champions League win
Manchester City faced Napoli on Thursday night in their opening fixture of the new season’s champions league campaign. Guardiola fielded an unchanged XI from the one that started in the 3-0 victory against United at the weekend in hopes for another strong performance. Kevin De Bruyne made an earlier than expected return to the Etihad starting for Napoli – he received a warm reception from the home crowd.
City started the match well with initial chances in the opening minutes. Reijnders fancied a long shot from outside the box in the 4th minute which was saved by Milenkovic-Savic, who had a brilliant first half saving Napoli on many occasions. Napoli for the large part of the game had a defensive setup and didn’t threaten City’s goal with their biggest chance of the match coming early in the first half when a corner swung in from Politano eventually found its way to a Napoli header, but the attempt was well blocked by Donnarumma.
In the 21st minute, the tempo of the game shifted when Haaland was through on goal but brought down by Napoli captain Di Lorenzo. Bafflingly, the referee did not give the foul initially, requiring a VAR review to eventually conclude that the challenge denied a clear goalscoring opportunity and warranted a red card. Following the sending off, De Bruyne’s return came to an end as he was subbed off for defender Oliviera. The following free kick from Reijnders was straight to the wall and Napoli employed a catenaccio style of tactics – trying to prevent City from scoring as much as possible.
Milenkovic-Savic had his best part of the game during the end of the first half – saving 3 clear chances from Haaland, Foden, and a near own goal to ensure that Napoli were still level going into the break.
Napoli had been stubborn in defence since going a man down, but their resilience was eventually broken in the 55th minute, when Rodri passed a through ball to Foden, who chipped it through on to the head of Haaland over the goalkeeper to make it 1-0 to City. A much-needed goal for the Blues. It was mostly one way traffic for City from the first goal, enjoying more chances shortly after.
In the 65th minute, Doku danced through the Napoli defence to put himself through on goal and slotted the ball into the left corner to double city’s lead, continuing his fine form. City did not have many more chances following the 2nd, but maintained firm control of the game and Napoli never really provided any threat or intention of getting back into the game. City subs Savio, Bobb, and Gonzalez came on for Rodri, Doku, and Haaland to see out the game and it was a comfortable win in the end for the Blues.
The win gives City their first back-to-back competitive wins of the season in a relatively tough run too. Donnarumma is still yet to concede a goal in a City shirt and Foden, Haaland, and Doku continue to impress. Their biggest challenge arguably comes this Sunday, where they face a title chasing Arsenal side at the Emirates.