Erling Haaland scored his 50th Champions League goal as Manchester City eased past a ten-man Napoli 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Thursday night.
It was a disastrous start for Napoli, as captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo was shown a red card on VAR review for his challenge on Haaland in the 21st minute. The Norwegian was clearly through on a break and Di Lorenzo missed the ball, leaving the officials little choice.
Kevin de Bruyne, now wearing Napoli colours, endured an emotional return to the Eithad with ‘King Kev’ banners flying in the stands. But the red card cut it short as Napoli needed to change their structure, subbing the Man City legend off.
The hosts would finally make them pay in the second stanza. Phil Foden produced a delightful chip into the danger area and Halaand dabbed the ball over Napoli gloveman Sergej Milinkovic-Savic for the opener in the 56th minute.
Ten minutes later, Jeremy Doku danced through the Napoli defence to add a second. The Belgian showed superb feet as he squared up a defender and took himself into the six-yard box before sliding the ball under a hapless Milinkovic-Savic.
Napoli manager Antonio Conte described the “impossible” situation his charges faced after the red card.
“I think that already it’s difficult to play 11 against 11,” he said.
“After 20 minutes, it was impossible. I think that also with 10 men, defensively we were really good. The two goals I think we can do much better. But I don’t have anything to tell to my players, because the commitment was good. I think if it had continued 11 against 11 we could see another game in my opinion, but you’re talking about Manchester City, a fantastic team. I come back to Italy with the mentality of the team, because I liked the way they suffered, suffered together.”
Meanwhile, Man City boss Pep Guardiola told the press he was glad to be rewarded for patience on attack.
“We played a lot of minutes against 10, it was an advantage, but at the same time we were not, I would say, stressed in that situation,” he said.
“But we played well with 11 and it was a big victory against an incredible side. The team in the last two games took another feeling. Our composure defensively, offensively, our body language is unbelievably good.”
