Julian Alvarez scored a brace as Manchester City survived a scare in their first Champions League match this season to thrash Crvena Zvezda 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium.
The defending champions found themselves behind at half time despite dominating massive possessions and missing several scoring chances.
The Etihad Stadium was silent as the little-known Crvena Zvezda opened scoring two minutes into first-half added time.
Osman Bukari tried his luck from the edge of the box after he was set free and scored with an accurate shot inside the right post to make it 0-1 for the visitors.
City responded two minutes into the second half. Erling Haaland teed up Julian Alvarez inside the box and he rolled the ball into the bottom right corner and past Omri Glazer for an equaliser.
Jeremy Doku wasted a golden opportunity to score for City. He created some space for himself inside the penalty box and unleashed a decent strike towards the bottom left corner, but Omri Glazer made an astonishing save to thwart him.
Midway into the second half, Alvarez scored a beautiful goal from the resulting free kick. He bent the ball into the top right corner for a technically stunning goal.
City made it 3-1 from Rodri’s fantastic finish. He found some space for a shot from the edge of the box and his attempt went low inside the right post.
Barcelona Defeats Antwerp 5-0
Elsewhere at the Nou Camp, Barcelona walloped Antwerp 5-0 to begin their Champions League campaign.
Three goals in the first half with Joao Felix getting on the scoresheet in the 11th minute and then assisting Robert Lewandowski to score eight minutes later before Jelle Batille scored an own goal deflecting Raphina’s ball in the 22nd minute.
The hosts went ahead to score two more goals in the second half with Gavi’s strike in the 54th minute while Felix recorded his brace 12 minutes later.
Paris Saint Germain also shrugged off their last weekend defeat with an impressive 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund at Paris.
Second-half goals from Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi gave the French giants maximum points.
At San Siro, it ended in a barren draw between Samuel Chukwueze’s Milan and newcomers Newcastle
The only Nigerian that ended on the winning side on Tuesday was Zaidu Sanusi who was in action as FC Porto secured a 3-1 away win over Shakhtar Donetsk.
Leave a Reply