City made a winning start to their Champions League campaign as two second-half goals from Erling Haaland secured a 2-0 victory over Porto at the Estádio do Dragão.
It wasn’t easy, and City took a while to get going, but four games into Enzo Maresca’s reign, the winning run continues. Porto had arrived unbeaten this season and made City work for it.
Haaland makes the difference
Maresca made three changes from the side that beat Coventry City, with Matheus Nunes, Phil Foden and Ayyoub Bouaddi coming into the XI. Bouaddi was handed his first City start alongside Enzo Fernández in midfield.
The first half was fairly slow to begin with, with Porto happy for City to have plenty of the ball without giving them much space where it counted.
That gradually changed. Foden began to find room and Diogo Costa had to save a Haaland header, while another headed opportunity from the Norwegian went over.
Costa was called upon again as City finished the half more strongly, although the game had developed a bit of an edge by then. A clash involving Marc Guéhi and Gabri Veiga caused a lengthy stoppage, with tempers reportedly spilling over into the tunnel at half-time.
City didn’t have long to wait after the restart.
Cherki drove into the Porto area and found Fernández, whose cross was headed down and beyond Costa by Haaland. The breakthrough came less than two minutes into the second half.
Porto responded, and André Silva fired into the side-netting before Maresca made his first changes. Elliot Anderson and Iliman Ndiaye replaced Cherki and Antoine Semenyo shortly after the hour.
Foden and Bouaddi were later replaced by Mateo Kovačić and Rayan Aït-Nouri, with City having to stay switched on as Porto looked for a way back into the game.
They never found one.
Instead, Haaland struck again in stoppage time, finishing from Aït-Nouri’s pass to make it 2-0 and complete his double.
Perfect start…
It was City’s fourth win from four under Maresca and followed their perfect start to the Premier League season.
Next up in Europe are holders Paris Saint-Germain at the Etihad on October 14, one of the toughest games in City’s Champions League league-phase schedule.
City: Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias (c), Guéhi, Gvardiol; Bouaddi, Fernández; Foden, Cherki, Semenyo; Haaland.
Subs used: Anderson, Ndiaye, Kovačić, Aït-Nouri.
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