{"id":26294,"date":"2022-10-06T01:02:33","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T01:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=26294"},"modified":"2022-10-06T01:02:36","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T01:02:36","slug":"champions-league-manchester-city-beats-fc-copenhagen-5-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/10\/06\/champions-league-manchester-city-beats-fc-copenhagen-5-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions League: Manchester City beats\u00a0FC Copenhagen 5-0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This ultimately \u2013 inevitably, perhaps \u2013 turned out to be another headline\u2011grabbing night from Erling Haaland, and this time he needed only 45 minutes to leave his mark on another Manchester City match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only three opposition sides \u2013 Liverpool, Bournemouth and the Serbia national team\u2013 have prevented Haaland from scoring at least once this season. It took him just seven minutes, and one touch, to ensure FC Copenhagen would not join that group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Haaland wheeled away after turning in Jo\u00e3o Cancelo\u2019s cross, Pep Guardiola could simply do nothing other than laugh. The Etihad Stadium announcer joined in the fun, declaring: \u201cGoal for City, who else?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is the thing, though: it is difficult to know how to react when you are witnessing a striker who touches the ball fewer than some of the ballboys and yet has 19 goals in 12 appearances this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time he was substituted at half-time here, the job had been comprehensively done by City and Haaland. He had scored a second \u2013 that is also 28 goals in 22 Champions League games, already more than Rivaldo and Luis Su\u00e1rez \u2013 before being withdrawn, and City added a third courtesy of a Davit Khocholava own goal in a blistering first half. They scored two more after the break through Riyad Mahrez and Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez to run out comfortable winners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It means they can have qualification sewn up for the last 16 as early as next Tuesday, when they head to the Danish capital for the reverse fixture. \u201cThe way we played was magnificent, I\u2019m so satisfied for the guys and how they performed,\u201d Guardiola said. \u201cThe result was excellent but I\u2019m really impressed the way we attacked. I\u2019m really, really satisfied and again, compliments to the players.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rarely are goalkeepers impressive in a 5-0 defeat but had it not been for the exploits of Copenhagen\u2019s former Liverpool and Huddersfield Town man, Kamil Grabara \u2013 whose performance Guardiola labelled \u201cwonderful\u201d \u2013 we could easily have been discussing a record-breaking Champions League scoreline here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City were wonderful all across the field. The likes of Sergio G\u00f3mez and Ilkay G\u00fcndogan stood out with majestic individual displays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Riyad<\/a>
Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City celebrates with teammates after scoring his team\u2019s fourth goal. Photograph: Quality Sport Images\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It took Haaland just seven minutes to break the deadlock. In that time, City had already piled the pressure on Copenhagen and when Cancelo\u2019s cross fell into the path of the Norwegian even Grabara probably knew what the outcome would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haaland had been denied twice more by Grabara before the midway point of the first half, the Poland international already keeping things somewhat respectable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when Grabara palmed a G\u00f3mez shot into the path of Haaland, he claimed his second with ease. It left Copenhagen\u2019s manager, Jacob Neestrup, in awe of both Haaland and City. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t anything we could do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to accept we\u2019re playing against the best team in the world right now. When you see the way he [Haaland] moves, it\u2019s unnatural.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City\u2019s third did not involve Haaland, as a G\u00f3mez shot deflected off both Denis Vavro and Khocholava past a helpless Grabara. That was seemingly the catalyst for the striker to be rested, with Cole Palmer coming on at the interval. But City didn\u2019t relent, and within nine minutes of the restart they had their fourth after Aymeric Laporte was fouled in the box. Mahrez effortlessly converted from the spot and if there were any lingering doubts about the outcome, they had firmly been eradicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guardiola, perhaps looking ahead to the game against Southampton on Saturday, signalled further changes from the bench. The youngsters Rico Lewis and Josh Wilson-Esbrand were summoned for their first Champions League appearances, but that did not stunt City\u2019s rhythm. They continued to press further forward for more goals, with more heroics from Grabara in the Copenhagen goal keeping the scoreline anything like respectable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Danes did come close to a goal of their own when Valdemar Lund Jensen headed narrowly wide from a corner. But perhaps fittingly,the hosts had the final word on a night when little appeared to go wrong. Their fifth came when a driving run from Jack Grealish \u2013 who was also outstanding and appears to be nearing his best once again \u2013 led to \u00c1lvarez prodding home from close range to put the seal on another perfect night for City and their talismanic striker. The only grumble for Haaland? He didn\u2019t leave with another hat-trick ball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This ultimately \u2013 inevitably, perhaps \u2013 turned out to be another headline\u2011grabbing night from Erling Haaland, and this time he needed only 45 minutes to leave his mark on another Manchester City match. Only three opposition sides \u2013 Liverpool, Bournemouth and the Serbia national team\u2013 have prevented Haaland from scoring at least once this season. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[502,11583,1911,9331,7372,6310,8161,7090,1966,8137,10954,4761,9606,197,12791,11252,501,8126,12187,7968,9157,11973,2291,4082,13256,837,5278,432,5597,11259,266,7419,12851,36,594],"class_list":["post-26294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-bournemouth","tag-capital","tag-champions-league","tag-city","tag-danish-capital","tag-erling-haaland","tag-fc-copenhagen","tag-games","tag-guardiola","tag-haaland","tag-international","tag-jack-grealish","tag-julian-alvarez","tag-liverpool","tag-manager","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-city","tag-match","tag-n","tag-nine","tag-norwegian","tag-one","tag-palmer","tag-pep-guardiola","tag-players","tag-poland","tag-quality","tag-riyad-mahrez","tag-serbia","tag-shot","tag-southampton","tag-the-game","tag-winners","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}