Manchester City 2-0 Napoli: Goalscorers sprinkle some glitz on dull affair after first-half red card
The build-up to this game was dominated by Kevin de Bruyne’s return to Manchester City, only four months after he had left and joined Serie A champions Napoli.
The Belgian midfielder was duly welcomed to the stadium that will soon feature his statue, but his return was disappointingly cut short when he was withdrawn just before the half hour, after Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s foul on Erling Haaland left manager Antonio Conte needing to reshuffle.
City pressed and found a satisfactory win through goals from Haaland and Jeremy Doku. Haaland’s opener midway through the second half made him became the fastest player in Champions League history to reach 50 goals.
The strike came in just 49 appearances in Europe’s premier competition, breaking Ruud van Nistelrooy’s previous record of 62 games. Doku’s solo effort followed soon after that to seal a result that was made more straightforward by Di Lorenzo’s dismissal.
Napoli’s captain had initially escaped sanction when he lunged across Haaland to halt a through ball from Phil Foden. But a VAR review persuaded the referee to show him a straight red and doom Napoli’s night to a slow and painful end.
But even with a one-man advantage, City had to work for their breakthrough. Napoli defended ultra-deep and goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic produced a series of saves to keep Guardiola’s side at bay until Haaland’s moment.
It was Foden who unlocked the defence when he collected the ball on the edge of the box and clipped a deft pass over the top for the Norwegian to head home.
Then Doku displayed his dangerous skillset. Luxuriating in Napoli’s tension in the box he burst past two defenders and finished through Milinkovic-Savic’s legs to make it 2-0.
From there, there was little else but a slow elegy for the visitors, both sides content with the scoreline as it was.
