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
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