- Safiu Kehinde
Manchester City cruised past Sparta Prague 5-0 on Wednesday to extend their unbeaten run in the 2024/2025 Champions League campaign.
Phil Foden opened the scoreboard for the Cityzens when he latched on to a pass from Manuel Akanji and slotted the ball into the bottom corner within just three minutes of play.
With no other goals from both teams in the first half, the game advanced to the second half where Haaland brought the blue-clad City fans out of their seats at Etihad Stadium after scoring in spectacular fashion in the 58th minute, leaping high to backheel home Savinho’s cross from out of the air.
Manchester City’s defender, John Stones, added to the tally for Pep Guardiola’s side in the 64th minute when he leapt to head home from a superb cross from Nunes, bringing the game to 3-0.
City’s Norwegian striker, Haaland, completed his brace with a more traditional finish in the 68th minute, easily slotting home a pass from Savinho to put his scoring tally at 44 Champions League goals in 42 games.
Matheus Nunes, however, put the icing on the cake as his 88th penalty sealed a 5-0 win for the English champions
Manchester City’s win saw them climbed to third in Europe’s elite club competition with seven points after three games, while Sparta have four points.
Meanwhile, Haaland climbed level with Didier Drogba in 16th spot on the all-time scoring list in the European competition, although Drogba took 92 games to reach the mark.
While Czech champions Sparta had a few chances on the counter-attack in the first half, City pummelled the visitors with 22 shots to their five on the night, with 10 of them on target.
Speaking after he game, Sparta Prague’s coach, Lars Friis, admitted to have lost to the best team in the world.
“We played against the best team in the world.
“We played against the best players in the world. We handled Haaland well and then he pops up with a goal like this.” He said
City, who drew 0-0 with Inter Milan and then thrashed Slovan Bratislava 4-0 in their first two games, next visit Sporting in the new 36-team league phase, with the top eight automatically making the last 16.