Haaland hits milestone as City beat 10-man Napoli 2-0

MANCHESTER, England – Erling Haaland made Champions League history by reaching 50 goals in just 49 games as Manchester City beat SSC Napoli 2-0 on Wednesday night, with the Italian side playing most of the match with 10 men.

The big talking point before kickoff was about Napoli’s former Manchester United players but it was City’s new signing from Italy, Tijjani Reijnders, who had the first real chance with a long range shot. Things changed completely after 17 minutes though when Giovanni Di Lorenzo got sent off for a tackle on Haaland. The referee initially said it was fine but VAR made him change his mind.

Playing with a man advantage should of made things easier for City but Napoli keeper Vanja Milinković-Savić was having a brilliant game. The Serbian stopper made some great saves to deny Nico O’Reilly and Joško Gvardiol with headers, then somehow stopped what would of been a Matteo Politano own goal right before halftime.

Antonio Conte took off Kevin De Bruyne early which was a surprise, probably trying to make his team more defensive after the red card. It was working too because City was getting frustrated and couldn’t find a way through despite having the extra man.

The breakthrough finally came 11 minutes into the second half and it was Haaland who made the difference. Rodri played a nice ball to Phil Foden who clipped it over the Napoli defense perfectly for the Norwegian striker. Haaland used his head to lift the ball over Milinković-Savić and into the net for his 50th Champions League goal – the fastest anyone has ever reached that milestone.

Jeremy Doku made it 2-0 ten minutes later with a lovely solo goal, twisting and turning through the Napoli defense before finishing calmly for his first goal of the season. That basically killed off any hopes Napoli had of getting back into the game.

City controlled the rest of the match pretty easily to get their second Champions League win in eight games, which isn’t great for a team of their quality. For Napoli, this loss ends their perfect start to the season but they’ll be disappointed they couldn’t do more even with 10 men. They still haven’t won away to an English team in 13 tries across all competitions.