Erling Haaland scored for the 12th game running for club and country as Manchester City cruised to a 2-0 victory over Villarreal in the Champions League. Bernardo Silva also netted to rubber-stamp City's first away win in Europe's top competition for more than a year, taking Pep Guardiola's side on to seven points from their three games in the League Phase.
Haaland missed the target with a free header less than three minutes into the game but he soon made amends by firing in a cut-back from Rico Lewis after patient build-up play from the visitors. It was the Norwegian's 53rd Champions League goal and saw him move past Mohamed Salah and into the competition's top 10 all-time scorers. And it was his 24th goal for City and Norway in a season in which meaning he
City monopolised possession and looked comfortable for most of the game against the team placed third in La Liga, illustrating the widening gap between the top divisions in Spain and England. City doubled their lead with a header from captain Bernardo Silva, who scored his first goal of the season five minutes before half-time.
City's dominance was all the more impressive as they were still without Rodri while he recovers from a hamstring injury. The Spaniard still travelled to the club where he launched his career as he was inducted into their Hall of Fame. And there was more injury concern for City when Nico Gonzalez pulled up injured in the second half and hobbled off the pitch. Villarreal finally woke up and had a go in the final 20 minutes. Gianluigi Donnarumma was forced to make an impressive save from Pape Gueye's piledriver while Nicolas Pepe hammered a close-range volley over the bar and Tani Oluwaseyi hit the woodwork. City also finished strongly though and Haaland could have scored twice more.
GOAL rates Man City's players from the Estadio de la Ceramica...