Manchester City v Sporting CP
Manchester City v Sporting CP
Wednesday January 27th, 2027
Etihad Stadium
UEFA Champions League Matchday 8
Two big departures over the summer for the Citizens, their mister Pep Guardiola after a decade long stay and Erling Haaland's hair. Unlike Samson in the Bible the latter doesn't seem to have diminshed the shooting prowess of the Norweigan forward as the Portuguese champions found out to their detriment on matchday 1 at the Estádio do Dragão. On 20' Foden floated a cross to the edge of the 6 yard box headed goalwards by Haaland, tipped over by Costa in the Porto goal. A warning sign of what was to come. Porto needed Costa again to come to their rescue on 31' as first Haaland saw his effort from 8 yards saved and then a follow up effort Cherki from 8 yards was also saved.
Just 1'34 seconds into the second half and Porto hadn't learned their lesson as the ex-Benfica player Enzo Fernández on his return to Portugal put the ball on the head of Haaland who steered it home off the left hand post to make it 1-0 to City. 29 seconds after the 90 Rayan Aït-Nouri puts the ball between the legs of Rosario to find Haaland who slotted home past two defenders into the bottom right hand corner. Worrying for Porto who failed to even register a single on target or for that matter a shot of any description before Alan Varela's long range effort on 56 minutes.
xG 0.22 - 2.33
Total shots 5 - 20
Shots on target 0 - 10
Big Chances 0 - 6
Big Chances 0 - 4
Matchday 2 - PSG (H) 2 - 4 L
Al Clássico as the oil states clubs went head to head on Matchday 2. This the first Champions League game after the Premier League club were found guilty of 114 of 115 charges laid against them. Very notable that the current European Champions have come out in support of City's owners in their appeal. Those with a short memory may need reminding that the lions beat PSG at home 2-1 in the group phase and…in the 2024/25 season beat Manchester City at home 4-1. Miracles clearly do happen.
12’ PSG with one of the Champions League all time great team goals as they took the ball from the right hand corner of their half, all the way down to just outside the left hand side of the City area where Doué fired home from 22 yards into the bottom left hand corner. City's night got worse just 2 minutes later as Doué turned provider to pick out Dembélé to head home from 3 yards. 30’ Doué repeated the trick to pick out Hakimi who headed onto the left hand post from 7 yards and was left with his hands on head as it bounced back out to safety. Less than a minute later another great team goal as PSG walked through the City defence and set up Vitinha to fire home centrally into the bottom right hand corner from 17 yards.
48' Enzo Fernandez missed a gilt edged opportunity heading wide from 7 yards and took his anger out on a water bottle by the side of the goal kicking it into oblivion. 52’ A quite stunning header from Haaland to guide the ball in from 12 yards pulled a goal back for City. 62’ Donnarumma with a touch of the Rui Silva’s as he saves Akliouche’s effort from inside the D that was heading into the top left hand corner. The ball went straight up and backwards and despite getting back on his feet he only succeeded in forcing the ball onto the post and into the net for 4-1 against his old club. 69’ Ex-Sporting player Nuno Mendes headed off the line from a flick on by Gvardiol that was set to halve the deficit. 73’ Haaland headed onto the bar from 7 yards but did slot home a minute later from 16 yards to make it 4-2. 82’ Sensational save from Safanov as Haaland slid in at the back post to send the ball goalwards into the centre of the net and somehow he got down to his right to stop it on the line. 87’ Another ex-lion involved in the action as Mateus Nunes took out Nuno Mendes inside the area and a penalty awarded. 89’ Torres looked like a man who'd never taken a penalty before as he went down the middle and Donnarumma with a comfortable save.
xG 2.57 - 1.83
Total Attempts 27 - 15
Shots on target 9 - 10
Big chances 6 - 4
Big chances missed 6 - 3
AEK Athens (H) 5 - 1 W
Having lost to PSG on Matchday 2 it wasn't just the plates that got smashed in Manchester on Tuesday night. One of those rare footballing nights with every player took their Opta defined big chance with 5 in total over the course of the 90 minutes.
11' Enzo Fernández's nonchalant 23 yard free kick came back off the bar to summer signing Anderson who tapped home from 5 yards for his first City goal. The Greeks definately guilty of overloading the wall and not picking up the England midfielder who just walked through the big gap and went thank you very much. 33' Rico Lewis pulled the ball back to the edge of the six yard box, one touch to switch feet from Foden and he slammed it home from half a yard inside the space.
51' Pilios who I was bigging up in round 2 made it 2-1 with a really smart finish into the right hand corner from 10 yards. 56' Golazzo from Cherki to restore City's two goal advantage. Foden passes to him on the edge of the box and with his right instep he knocks it behind his left leg and turns with a Greek defender sliding quickly out of view having been royally mugged off. With the space fully opened up he slots it into the bottom left hand corner. I mean the first touch and finish were superb but dropping the defender who just carried on for several yards with his slide just made it all the better on the eye. I'm guessing by the time you read this Arriaga will probably just have stopped sliding.
64' Foden got his second and City's 4th as he smashed the ball home into the top left hand corner from 17 yards. 75' Matchball incoming when McAidoo put it on a plate for Foden to tap in from 5 yards unmarked at the back post to complete his hat-trick and the Greek rout.
xG 2.84 - 0.72
Total Attempts 17 - 11
Shots on target 7 - 3
Big chances 4 - 1
Big chances missed 0 - 0
