Who else? Erling Haaland scored an athletic winner for Manchester City against his former club Borussia Dortmund. The Cityzens found it tough going against the German side, creating very little until deep into the second half. But Pep Guardiola’s team gutted it out to walk out 2-1 winners at the Etihad Stadium.
A familiar face opened the scoring as England starlet Jude Bellingham headed in a whipped cross-shot from Marco Reus. The former Birmingham City midfielder has been linked with a return to these shores, with City touted as a possible destination. With this well-finished effort he surely passed the audition.
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City are usually one of the most creative and exciting attacking teams in European football. But Dortmund limited them to such an extent they did not log a shot on target until the 80th minute. That shot just happened to be an absolute scorcher from John Stones, who lashed home from outside the box.
Just four minutes later, City would take the lead. Joao Cancelo’s superb outside-the-boot cross was met with a flexible, improvised left-footed finish from Haaland. The goal recalled the most audacious of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s finishes and even Haaland’s understandably muted celebrations could not dampen the impact. City walked out the victors having sprinkled some stardust on what was a very hard night.
You could use any number of adjectives to sum up Rangers’ 3-0 defeat at home to Napoli. “Boring” or “uneventful” would not be among them. Piotr Zielinski hit the crossbar almost immediately, a harbinger for the wild night ahead.
James Sand was given a red card for a second bookable offence when he fouled Matteo Politano in the penalty area. Zielinski saw his spot kick saved by Allan McGregor before Politano himself sunk the rebound. The penalty was then ordered to be retaken due to encroachment. The do-over penalty was then saved by McGregor in utterly wild scenes.
A ridiculous assist from Cancelo, an even more ridiculous finish from Erling Haaland 😍
How does he do this!?
#UCL
The excitement had barely abated at Ibrox when Borja Barisic was adjudged to have handled the ball in the area. Zielinski was not entrusted with a third spot kick and Politano slotted the ball narrowly past McGregor to finally put the Serie A side in front.
Giacomo Raspadori added a second after some savvy interplay with Mathias Olivera. Former Spurs star Tanguy Ndombele put the game beyond doubt late on with his first goal for Napoli. A night to forget for Rangers but not one that will be easy to shake considering how many of their problems were of their own making.
New Chelsea manager Graham Potter knew he wouldn’t have it easy when he swapped Brighton & Hove Albion for a job at the 2020 Champions League winners. A 1-1 draw with RB Salzburg was perhaps a little harder than even he expected.
During the first half it looked like Potter would make a winning start. The west London club did not create a huge amount of chances, but they moved the ball well and Mason Mount went close.
Raheem Sterling broke the deadlock by latching onto a Mount cross aimed towards Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The England man applied a tidy finish and it looked like Chelsea were cruising. They failed to apply the killer touch while leading though and substitute Noah Okafor dispatched a Junior Adamu cross to draw Salzburg level.
This was a brutal introduction to the realities of life at this level for Potter and an experience he will have to learn from quickly.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
