Manchester City 4 Borussia Dortmund 0: match report

Goals from Foden, Haaland, and Cherki brush aside Dortmund as City look strong in top 8 race

Manchester City beat Borussia Dortmund 4-1 on Wednesday night in the Champions League with another impressive home performance, following Sunday’s 3-1 victory over Bournemouth. The lineup included three changes in the starting XI. Donnarumma remained in goal. Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, and O’Reilly were in defence. Gonzalez, Reijnders and Foden were in the midfield with Savinho, Doku, and Haaland in attack.

City were in control from the kick off and had some early chances to break the deadlock. In the 9th minute, a shot from Haaland in the box was met with the hand of Kobel and another shot from Doku went just wide. The first goal came in the 22nd minute when Reijnders passed the ball to Foden on the edge of the box, who turned and struck the ball sweetly with his left foot into the bottom corner to give the Blues the lead. One way traffic ensued from this moment onwards. Moments later, City had the chance to double the lead after Haaland played through O’Reilly 1v1 with the keeper, but his attempt was saved.

The missed attempt proved to be not costly as in the 28th minute following a quick run from Savinho, Doku collected the ball on the left side and crossed into Haaland who turned and powered the ball into the back of the net to double the lead for City.

A chance to make it three came on the stroke of half time with a powerful shot from Reijnders which was well saved again by Kobel, rebounding off the head of Haaland for a goal kick. City led 2-0 at halftime. At the start of the second half, Savinho once again charged down the wing and into the box and went for goal himself, but his shot was saved. In the 55th minute, Savinho overpowered the Dortmund midfielder to start another attacking move for the Blues, after working the ball around the area, Reijnders once again passed it to Foden, who played a similar shot to his first goal and found the net again to make it 3-0.

Dortmund didn’t give up and with a brilliant quick attacking move they found the net with a goal from Anton at the near post. From this moment onwards momentum was with them and were looking to reduce the scoreline further. A misjudged pass from Nunes to Donnarumma almost found the legs of Adeyemi but some brilliant tackling work from the Italian goalkeeper kept City’s two goal lead. In the 90th minute, City substitute Cherki had possession of the ball and ran through the defence and struck the ball into the net to cap off a comprehensive victory for the Blues.

City now sit 4th in the Champions League table halfway through the League stage with 10 points, needing to finish in the top 8 for automatic round of 16 qualification. Next up for the Blues is Liverpool on Sunday in what will be a crucial clash in the bid to catch Arsenal at top spot. With both teams picking form back up prior to the game, stakes will be high and the result could be a turning point of the season for either side.