Manchester City 4 Borussia Dortmund
Phil Foden scored twice against Borussia Dortmund (Nick Potts/PA)
A Phil Foden double with certain similarities meant that this is as close as Haaland has come to being upstaged by anyone else at Manchester City this season. Many a match has lent itself to the theory that they are over-reliant on their giant talisman for goals but this was not one of them.
In condemning Dortmund to defeat, Foden may have also sent a message to a former Dortmund manager. Thomas Tuchel names his England squad on Friday and Foden, omitted from the last, ended a seven-game goal drought in style. More pertinently for City, he steered them into the top four in the table. A year on from finishing 22nd and flirting an ignominiously early exit, they are better positioned.
That owes something to Haaland, who has scored in all four Champions League games so far. He opted not to celebrate against Dortmund, though he has enough other goals he can mark in more exuberant style. If no opponent knows more about Haaland than Dortmund, they can testify that is still of scant assistance when it comes to stopping him. He scored 86 in 89 games for them. He duly struck against them, a 27th of the season for club and country, a 10th in his last six games at the Etihad, and City’s second of the night. The previous time Dortmund visited Manchester, Haaland scored a spectacular bicycle kick. This was a ferocious finish after a cutback from Jeremy Doku.
Haaland almost had an assist, too. Nico O’Reilly, a left-back materialising in the centre-forward position, had a shot tipped over after a rampaging run from the stand-in skipper, who led City out with Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias relegated to the bench.
Foden took on a different form of responsibility: in front of goal. His brace, the first steered into the bottom corner, the second curled, each came from around 20 yards. Tijjani Reijnders assisted both, even if Foden merited rather more credit on each occasion. The Dutchman was recalled with Rayan Cherki demoted to the bench, despite his brace of assists against Bournemouth.
Erling Haaland scored against his former club (Nick Potts/PA)
It was part of a tactical shift from Guardiola, and it worked. After deploying a narrow midfield on Sunday, he reverted to out-and-out wingers who opened up space between the lines for Foden. It helped that Savinho tormented Daniel Svensson, who was hampered by an early booking for fouling the Brazilian. If he has had a false start to the season, it was his best display of a mixed campaign so far. A criticism remains a lack of end product and perhaps, given the positions he got into, Savinho should have supplied a goal, though he came remarkably close, with Julian Ryerson nicking the ball away to deny Haaland a tap-in. Savinho might have scored, too, volleying over.
And yet, while City seemed comfortable with a three-goal lead, Dortmund are more recent Champions League finalists than them and kicked off above them in the table. There were hints of why.
Gianluigi Donnarumma had parried a Karim Adeyemi shot and made a fine block from Serhou Guirassy before Dortmund were galvanised by a quadruple change from manager Niko Kovac. What eventually proved a consolation goal was taken in predatory fashion by Waldemar Anton from Ryerson’s cross.
And there were moments when City looked fragile. Memories may have been cast back a year, to when they gave up a 3-0 lead at home to Feyenoord last season in a collapse that came with consequences. There was no sequel. Guardiola looked for solidity in removing his wingers, switching to a back five and sending on Dias and Silva.
There was a third arrival in a triple change. Cherki came on and sealed victory, a purposeful dribble and shot getting him a first Champions League goal for City and making this a productive week for the summer signing.
Dortmund had scored four goals in each of their first three Champions League games this season. Instead, and for the second time, they conceded four. Third in the Bundesliga lost to second in the Premier League. Maybe the gulf in resources suggests they should. But if Haaland left Dortmund to try and win the Champions League and did so at the first attempt with City, last year brought remarkable regression on the continental stage. Now they are a step closer to doing rather better. But it will help if Foden can again ensure it is not just the Haaland show.