Manchester City's Ilkay Gundogan celebrates scoring their first goal with Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku. BRATISLAVA - Manchester City cruised to their first win in the Champions League this season with Erling Haaland among the goalscorers in a 4-0 thrashing of Slovan Bratislava that did little justice to the visitors’ dominance. Ilkay Gundogan and Phil Foden struck within the first 15 minutes to set City on their way.
Haaland added his 42nd Champions League goal in 41 appearances before James McAtee registered his first goal in the competition for the club. After a stuttering start to their European campaign in a 0-0 draw at home to Inter Milan on matchday one, the English champions are up in running in the competition’s new format. Slovan had already suffered a baptism of fire in a 5-1 thrashing at Celtic in their opening match and were given another lesson by the 2023 winners.
Bratislava boss Vladimir Weiss had compared City manager Pep Guardiola’s “genius” to that of Catalan architect and designer Antoni Gaudi on the eve of the game. But Guardiola did not need to be at his creative best to draw up a winning game plan as the gulf between the sides was clear from the opening seconds. Guardiola could even afford the luxury of making six changes from the side that drew 1-1 at Newcastle on Sept 28.
Gundogan opened the floodgates with his first goal since returning from Barcelona. The City captain for the night’s powerful shot from the edge of the area deflected int.
