Manchester City fought back to win from behind yet again as a staggering five minutes earned the victory against Borussia Dortmund.
The match was goalless after a dreadful first-half in which several questionable team selection decisions backfired, with both wingers struggling badly and John Stones looking uncomfortable at right-back.
Pep Guardiola’s triple substitution rectified those problems, but at that stage Borussia Dortmund had already taken the lead through Jude Bellingham.
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What followed was an increasingly frustrating series of close calls and half-chances from which the only eventual comfort is that we surely won’t have to watch the same front three at the weekend.
All of that changed when Stones took a speculative shot from range which, thanks to sheer power, beat Dortmund’s goalkeeper and got Manchester City right back into the game.
The home side came alive after the equaliser, and a moment of brilliance from Joao Cancelo and Erling Haaland saw Guardiola’s men snatch a late winner to maintain a perfect start to the Champions League season.
Here’s how we rated the players!
Starting XI
Ederson - 6
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Not to blame for the Jude Bellingham goal. As is often the case, he didn’t have much else to do.
John Stones - 7
Did his best at right-back, though he’s certainly played better in that position before. The strike to level things was brilliant, regardless, and absolutely the turning point in the win.
Manuel Akanji - 7 (Man of the Match)
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Looked comfortable for much of the game and wasn’t to blame for our complete failure to create chances for most of the match, nor the goal.
Nathan Aké - 7
See above. I actually thought Aké had some good moments, especially in the first half.
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Joao Cancelo - 7
Nothing came off for him today until that exceptional match-winning pass in the final few minutes. It’s remarkable how easy he makes incredible things look, and sometimes how much he can struggle with the simple stuff.
Rodri - 6
Solid and good on the ball barring a few frustrating errors.
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Ilkay Gundogan - 6
Perhaps a bit unlucky to get substituted, as I thought he was nowhere near the biggest problem in the first half.
Kevin de Bruyne - 6
Did his best to be a creative force in the midfield, but it’s not meant to be a one-man job. You could see a few moments where KDB felt like he had to do everything himself and the end result was a few rushed passes that he’d usually be pulling off.
Riyad Mahrez - 3
Pretty dreadful before rightly being hooked in the second half. Mahrez goes through long patches where he’s great and equally long patches where he’s like he was tonight- slow, ineffective and poor in his decision making. A really weak shot in the first few minutes set the tone.
Erling Haaland - 7
Had some nice moments, but was completely starved of service for almost the entire game and his frustration was palpable in the second half. As we’re always saying, though, the point of Erling is that he scores big goals, and this was his biggest yet for us. It doesn’t matter how many touches he has before or after.
Jack Grealish - 3
‘Toothless’ doesn’t cut it. Shot after shot deflected off the first man and out for a corner, and the rest of the time he was slowing down the game to pass backwards. Needs to improve- and fast, because it’s only his homegrown status at this point that’s helping people overlook how badly out of his depth he feels. Another season of four goals and four assists is absolutely not going to cut it.
Substitutions:
Bernardo Silva - 6
Came on to make the side a little more progressive and certainly achieved that, which helped to make a big difference in the end.
Phil Foden - 6
An immediate improvement on the starting wingers, creating some very dangerous situations in the limited minutes he got.
Julian Alvarez - 6
Even when he’s not seeing much of the ball, the energy Alvarez brings is clearly extremely valuable to us and he can feel aggrieved not to be starting more often.
Kalvin Phillips - N/A
No real time to mark.
Topics: Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Champions League
Nathan Allen