MANCHESTER, England (AP) – Without typical long-term control, Manchester City entrusted in moments of individual brilliingness to begin their Champions League crusade on Wednesday.
City recovered from an initial goal of beating Porto 3-1 in their first Group C match, with a loose kick from Ilkay Gundogan and an impressive singles shot from replacement Ferran Torres to finish the part of the moment in an empty Etihad stadium.
“It’s to win back games,” said manager Pep Guardiola.
With the departure of veteran player David Silva, injured star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and players such as Gundogan and Sergio Aguero, the draw from the penalty point, feeling recovered in his most sensible form, was not fluid. start of the season.
A 1-0 win over Arsenal on Saturday once again put the City Premier League crusade back on track and the team had to paint with the same force as a Porto team, whose theaters perceived through the players obviously frustrated Guardiola on the sidelines.
Back in the Champions League after a year of absence, Porto took the lead in the 14th minute when city defender Rubén Dias gave the ball to Mateus Uribe, allowing Colombian winger Luis Díaz to enter and leave the domain with the ball, beating Rodri and then Joao Cancelo with some fintas , before shooting into the back corner.
City responded quickly, Aguero converted a penalty six minutes later, after Raheem Sterling made his way through Pepe, for his first purpose since March after a sort of fight in the domain that included Gundogan hitting the pole.
Kyle Walker produced an acrobatic clearing in the line of purpose to prevent Porto from coming back to the front just before half-time, and City pulled nothing out of Porto’s defense five until Gundogan fired out of the area at 65.
Guardiola is looking to take the German midfielder to this level (Gundogan only returned to education recently after contracting the coronavirus), but kept him for the loose kick.
It was a sensible decision, Gundogan intervened to fire a shot over the defensive wall and into the net.
Torres crowned victory within five minutes of play, exchanging passes with teammate Phil Foden before entering the area, dropping his shoulder to confuse Pepe and wrapping a shot in the 73rd minute for City’s third goal.
Aguero lasted 67 minutes as he continued from the 4 months of injury, with clever news at Guardiola’s post-party press convention, as he said De Bruyne would return to education on Thursday.
However, Fernandinho suffered a leg injury after placing a replacement in the part at the moment and could be lost for up to six weeks, according to Guardiola.
This is the tenth city to capture a first European crown. The next prevention is Marseille next week.
“The last 10, 15 minutes of the first half and the beginning of the second, we played well,” Guardiola said.
“Teams that are in position far back, you have to wait for the moment. We adjusted something a little at the end of the first part. We talked about being patient, we had to be patient and right time to attack them. “
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