Manchester City made light work of their Slovakian hosts, ripping them apart with four unanswered goals.
Ilkay Gündoğan’s early volley opened the scoring, with Phil Foden following just before halftime. Come the second half, Erling Haaland would notch his customary goal before academy graduate James McAtee put the cherry on top of a resounding victory.
As it happened
As one of the two lowest ranked sides in this season’s Champions League (along with BSC Young Boys), Slovan Bratislava likely weren’t too pleased when they saw Manchester City second in their list of eight gruelling fixtures in the new league phase of the competition. They were probably even less optimistic after shipping five goals against Celtic in their first game. As it turned out, they were right to be.
This was light work for Manchester City. That gets said – and is indeed the case – quite a lot. But this was a case of utter domination: 76% possession and 28 shots to a mere three. This was start to finish. Almost.
In only the second minute of the game, Slovan looked to make a statement of intent. Former City man Vladimír Weiss broke down the left and only a couple of passes later, Tigran Barseghyan was gifted with just enough room to let rip. His shot was inches away. One of those strikes that was a hair’s breadth, a tic-tac, a millimetre away from kissing the inside of the post and finding the back of the net. But, alas, wide.
Pep Guardiola’s side responded to that attempted statement as they often do, taping the mouth, letting their hopeful hosts know it would not be them doing the talking.
From then all out, it was all City, and it didn’t take them long to assert dominance. In the eight minute, they’d notch their first goal, a blocked Savinho strike finding the feet of Ilkay Gündoğan. Still airborne, the once again captain lashed a volley goalwards which took a sizeable nick off the shin of Kyriakos Savvidis, bamboozling his goalkeeper and flying into the unguarded top left corner.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was a harsh way to go behind, but any one of City’s early strikes could’ve broken the duck; Jérémy Doku and Gündoğan both crashed efforts onto the woodwork, with ten further shots either saved, blocked or hit wayward before the ringing of the halftime whistle.
So the second goal was written on the wall, and when it came seven minutes after the first, it wasn’t disappointing. Phil Foden, goalless this season until this point, found the pocket of space in the box he lives for. He took one touch to control, another to curl a deft finish into the far left corner. Dominik Takáč between the sticks had no chance, preparing for an evening with misery seemingly nailed on.
Embed from Getty ImagesOne man who didn’t get on the action in the first half was the man. But you can never count Erling Haaland out for long.
Just before the hour mark, he’d get his chance to make his mark on another Champions League season – and it was much too easy. Rico Lewis was given room to dawdle in the middle of the park, and that’s quite inadvisable, especially when there’s a big Norwegian striker just waiting to make a run in behind.
One ball later, and through on goal he was. Takáč came out to meet him and Haaland called his bluff, taking the ball round him and slotting into the newly vacated net. City were home and dry as if they weren’t already, their striker now only one goal away from matching Neymar’s tally in the Champions League. He’s not bad.
He was immediately withdrawn, but the goals wouldn’t stop. Instead, they’d come from the man who replaced him, a man who’s been waiting for this moment since joining City’s academy in 2013.
That man was James McAtee, and it was a goal made in that now illustrious academy: Rico Lewis with a simple pass to Phil Foden, who dinked it through to McAtee to smash first into the ground and then the back of the net. It was a goal that meant everything to both the boy turned man and the club which nurtured him.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhile a formality, this was a result which Manchester City really needed to kickstart their Champions League, particularly after their dour 0-0 draw with Inter on the opening day. The result marks only their third clean sheet of the season, this a marked improvement from the side which has leaked goals over the last few weeks.
Slovan Bratislava had a night to forget. Bar their early chance, they had little to nothing to celebrate. Things don’t look too much brighter for them either, with Milan and Bayern Munich still to play. On today’s evidence, they may well be in for a spot of bother, but the minnows are rubbing shoulders with the European big boys, and if the new Champions League format continues to bring that, then it can’t be a bad thing at all.
