FIRST HALF - BEHIND AT THE BREAK
It seemed imperative for United to weather an early storm yet, with a matter of seconds on the clock, Haaland managed to get behind our defence to flash an effort across the face of Altay Bayindir's goal.
Thankfully, this proved a rare lapse in the opening exchanges, and Benjamin Sesko mustered a shot on target in response, within three minutes, but debutant Gianluigi Donnarumma was equal to it. Bruno Fernandes and Noussair Mazraoui had inspired that particular move and United settled pretty well, only to go behind in the 18th minute.
Doku danced past Luke Shaw to get into the box and, although his initial cross was blocked by Manuel Ugarte, it rebounded into the winger's path and he scooped the ball into the centre for an unmarked Foden to nod the opener past Bayindir.
The hosts gained the upper hand for a spell but Amorim's men were able to cause them some alarm when Bryan Mbeumo ran onto an Ugarte through ball but finished wildly, with the offside flag raised in any case. A few minutes later, Mazraoui's pass appeared to be chested down by Sesko, who forced a good save out of Donnarumma, although referee Anthony Taylor penalised the big Slovenian for handball.
Nico O'Reilly fired over the bar from the edge of the area but neither side was truly able to piece things together, as the first half drew to a close with City still in the ascendancy, in terms of the scoreline, if not perhaps the overall pattern of play.