Man City break Napoli resistance as red card ruins De Bruyne’s return

Manchester City eventually got the job done against Napoli in the Champions League opener at the Etihad Stadium on Thursday night.

Napoli had to play with ten men for the majority of the game after Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s early red card, but eventually capitulated to Manchester City in the Champions League.

The early red card cut short Kevin De Bruyne’s return as the Belgian was sacrificed for a defensive change. Conte brought in Mathias Olivera, shifting Leonardo Spinazzola over to right-back.

Courtesy of the fixture, De Bruyne made an immediate reunion with his former teammates in this Champions League opener, with Rasmus Hojlund and Scott McTominay also returning to Manchester.

Due to the injury of Alex Meret, Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, who made some top saves to keep the scoreline goalless in the first half, stepped in again. 

Gianluigi Donnarumma made his Champions League debut for City, having made his debut for the team at the weekend in a 3-0 Premier League win over Manchester United.

Tijani Reijnders’ ferocious strike was pushed out by Milinkovic-Savic from under the bar, while Donnarumma made a quick stop to parry a Beukema header on a corner at the back post.

However, Napoli found themselves down to ten men when Phil Foden sent Erling Haaland through and  Di Lorenzo brought the striker down on the edge of the area.

The referee initially waved play on for a clean tackle, but a VAR intervention showed he did not make any contact with the ball, making the red card inevitable.

After Haaland’s header landed on the roof of the net, Milinkovic-Savic smothered a scuffed Foden effort and got down to palm away the dangerous Rodri volley.

He then went ahead to make a series of saves on the stroke of half-time on headers from Nico O’Reilly first, then Josko Gvardiol.

Politano put in a massive shift for the visitors. The high point was a desperate interception on the Reijnders first-time strike from 12 yards, which redirected the ball into the arms of Milinkovic-Savic, and he celebrated it like a goal.

City continued to mount pressure, looking for ways to break the low block as Foden flashed an angled drive across the face of the goal a few minutes into the half.

After  Politano, who was eventually removed, got booked, Napoli moved to a 3-5-1 formation.

The hosts were eventually rewarded when they broke the deadlock.  Foden intelligently dinked up a ball on the edge of the area for the delicate Haaland header that looped over Milinkovic-Savic.

The Norway international has now scored  50 goals in just 49 Champions League appearances, beating the record of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, who achieved his feat in 63 games.

City eventually made it two through the individual brilliance of Jeremy Domu. The Belgian winger dribbled between two to squirm down the left and nutmeg Milinkovic-Savic with a wonderful angled drive.

Manchester City then kept the ball and couldn’t inflict much further damage, which should at least help Napoli going forward with the goal difference in this Champions League format.