Pep Guardiola said of drawing Napoli and having Kevin De Bruyne return: “It was always going to happen, right?” He might have spoken, too, of his No 9’s ruthlessness, as Erling Haaland broke this game open with Champions League goal No 50 in a record 49 matches, a feat that handsomely beats Ruud van Nistelrooy’s previous 62-appearance mark.
His strike was a seventh in five for City – form as ominous as the Norwegian’s in the 2022-23 treble season.
Phil Foden’s lob was the bullet Haaland fired. The midfielder said: “He seems to break every record going. It’s unheard of what he’s doing. What an unbelievable player.”
After Napoli had Giovanni Di Lorenzo sent off on 21 minutes it was the longest of nights for an XI containing all the returning-to-Manchester three – Scott McTominay, Rasmus Højlund and De Bruyne – before the Belgian was sacrifice when his captain saw red.
“Once A Blue Always A Blue” was one banner greeting Super Kev, though Napoli’s star turn was Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, a goalkeeper defiant until the second-half intervention of Haaland and Jérémy Doku, whose solo effort had shades of Ricky Villa’s 1981 FA Cup final barnburner.
On a temperate night more akin to a venue in southern Europe, a Tijjani Reijnders stinger was beaten out by Milinkovic-Savic for a first corner. Napoli’s response came via a raking 45-yard De Bruyne diagonal that dropped sweetly on to Leonardo Spinazzola’s boot: he turned Abdukodir Khusanov inside out, so the makeshift right-back did well to recover.
Now, a Gianluigi Donnarumma hoof upfield reached Foden, whose early release had Haaland galloping in – Di Lorenzo scythed him down and after the pitchside review, the referee, Felix Zwayer, went from adjudging no foul to a wave of the red card.
Advantage City. After Reijnders’ free-kick spun away off the wall, and a Haaland flick went close, Napoli’s regroup featured Conte bringing on Mathías Olivera for De Bruyne: his 25 minutes were greeted with an ovation and a few volleys of: “Oh Kevin De Bruyne.” The Belgian poker-faced his removal but was surely discontented. Conte explained: “It was the only option I could do.”
The head coach had summed the contest up as his “students” against Guardiola’s “tutors”, and with Di Lorenzo’s early shower we settled in for City’s long siege of the Neapolitan goal. Rodri rolled to Foden and he unloaded and Milinkovic-Savic saved. A loose pass aimed at Alessandro Buongiorno had blue shirts scurrying after the ball with him but the centre-back beat these – just.
A rat-a-tat sequence involving Rodri-Foden-Haaland had the striker squeezed out just inside Napoli’s area. Then, Rúben Dias’s curving cross drew a flying Haaland, who marginally failed to connect close in. Rodri flitted about in prompting, metronomic mode and when stepping forward hit a 20-yard banger that had caused Milinkovic-Savic to dive low, and right, to repel.
He repeated the act – twice – to tip away headers from Nico O’Reilly and Josko Gvardiol, the Serb a one-man resistance to the ever-surging blue wave. Through all this his counterpart between City’s posts, Donnarumma, was a spectator on easy street. From the Naples area, the 26-year-old had close-to-zero to do before a break the team from his childhood locality managed to reach intact.
City’s last effort before the refreshments was a Reijnders’ attempt that Matteo Politano nearly turned into his own goal when sticking out a boot. But, yet again, Milinkovic-Savic was alert and he gathered and saved the stand-in skipper’s blushes.
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A first-half shot-count of 16-1 to City told the tale of the tie thus far. Conte’s interval instruction to his men was surely simple – “suffer and defend” – while saying too, maybe, internally, “cross everything”.
He certainly prayed when Doku fed Foden and he let fly. The ball bounced from the left, across goal, narrowly missing. Now, following a yellow card for Politano for grabbing Gvardiol, Conte took him off for Juan Jesus but the Brazilian defender could do nothing to stop what happened next.
From the edge of the area Foden, magically, flipped a lob past the No 5 into Haaland whose run and headed finish was of the pure poacher’s school. Guardiola celebrated, then substituted Rodri, Nico González given the last half an hour. Of the Spaniard’s exit, Guardiola said: “He asked to come off but he is fine.” The request came as he continues a comeback from a latest knee problem.
From here City’s mission was to keep their lead. The best method of doing this is to score again, of course. So, they did, and this came courtesy of Doku’s slaloming twinkle-toed burst that made mugs of Sam Beukema and Spinazzola, the pair cast as pub footballers before the Belgian’s razor-sharp piercing of their net.
City, continuing to probe, did not add another but this was an accomplished display.
