City beat Crvena Zvezda in Champions League 3-1
City beat Crvena Zvezda in the Champions League, trailing 0-1 after the first half, but effortlessly secured a 3-1 win in the opening match of the Champions League group stage.
Compared to the 1-3 win over West Ham, Nathan Ake, Sergio Gomez and Mateus Nunes join the City starting line-up, replacing Josko Gvardiol, Manuel Akanji and Jeremy Doku.
The match starts with an overwhelming advantage of the home team, but the visitors hold on with dignity. The Serbian team‘s Israeli goalkeeper Omri Glazer is particularly good, deflecting shots from Rodri and Julian Alvarez.
In the 25th minute, even Glazer is powerless to save Crvena Zvezda, but Erling Haaland’s header hits the crossbar.
Four minutes later, Ake’s header hit the crossbar, but Glazer’s diving effort is saved by Glazer.
City create moment after moment, but Glazer is superb. And in the final minute of the first half, Osman Bukari runs one-on-one through the centre to open the scoring — 0:1.
In the second half, however, it takes the Cityzens just over a minute to equalise. Alvarez skips past the goalkeeper and from the edge of the box, rolls the ball into the goal — 1:1.
In the 53rd minute, Kyle Walker, who breaks into the penalty area, plays into a wall with the visitors’ defender and hits the goal, but the goal is disallowed due to offside.
In the 60th minute, the hosts took the lead. Playing on the way out with his fist at a free kick, Glazer misses the ball and it flies into the goal — 2:1.
City continue to press, and in the 73rd minute everything becomes clear. Rodri receives the ball outside the box, goes inside the area and strikes a curling shot into the corner of the goal — 3:1.
With three goals, City settle down, and the numerous substitutions at the end make the game quite torn.
The 0:1 scoreline after the first half looks completely unexpected and illogical, but City have no trouble restoring justice.