Manchester City were thwarted on Wednesday September 18 at home by Inter Milan (0-0) for their Champions League debut, unable to crack the applied defense of the Italian club, which they had beaten in the final in 2023.
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Manchester City star striker Erling Haaland (L) duels with Inter Milan midfielder Piotr Zielinski in the Champions League on September 18 at the Etihad Stadium. Photo: AFP/VNA/CVN
As in Istanbul, the match between Pep Guardiola’s “Citizens” and Simone Inzaghi’s “Nerazzurri” was tense, tight and short on clear-cut chances.
But the English club never managed to find the fault, this time, despite the presence of the hero of 2023, the scorer of the coronation Rodri, starting for the first time this season.
Returning this summer after a year at Barcelona, ex-captain Ilkay Gündogan also had the winning ball on his head in added time, but his diving header went wide of the target (90th+4).
“We had chances but that’s football. And it’s obvious that we still have a lot of room for improvement,” defender Ruben Dias told English broadcaster TNT Sports.
It was a disappointing result for Manchester City, especially at home, following victories by Kylian Mbappé’s Real Madrid, Virgil van Dijk’s Liverpool and Harry Kane’s Bayern Munich, hosts of the 2025 final.
The regrets are all the greater as Inter arrived at the Etihad in a far from optimal state, between average performances in Serie A, the withdrawal of Federico Dimarco and the drop in form of captain Lautaro Martinez, on the bench at kick-off.
Threatening Inter
The plan put in place by Simone Inzaghi nevertheless considerably hampered the “Citizens”, who were harmless up front for a long time and were shaken up like rarely before, where the Italian comebacks created shivers.
Inter Milan striker Lautaro Martinez greets Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden at the end of their Champions League match at the Etihad Stadium on September 18. Photo: AFP/VNA/CVN
Fortunately for the home team, Marcus Thuram’s shot was off target (41st), Ederson closed the angle in front of Carlos Augusto (45th+1) and Matteo Darmian, thrown in front of the Brazilian goalkeeper, preferred to execute a backheel that was as useless as it was unexpected rather than shoot (53rd).
On the English side, the usually well-oiled goal machine this time slowed down, especially in the first half.
A symbol of this anomaly, Erling Haaland did not extend his thunderous start to the season, illuminated by nine goals in four league matches.
Isolated and silent on Wednesday, September 18, the Norwegian will have to wait for Arsenal to come on Sunday, September 22 to try to score his 100th goal for City, his club since the summer of 2022. In the Champions League, he will try to improve his total (41 goals in 40 matches) on October 1 at Slovan Bratislava.
Offensively, however, there was some improvement for the “Citizens” after half-time and the energetic entrance of Phil Foden, perhaps the most threatening Englishman for Yann Sommer.
The Swiss goalkeeper of the “Nerazzurri” can boast of being the only goalkeeper not to have conceded a goal against City this season, a feat that he also owes to the courageous and meticulous work of his defenders.
The latter did not leave much for Kevin De Bruyne, who came off visibly injured at half-time, Jack Grealish, Bernardo Silva or his replacement Jeremy Doku.
“We couldn’t expect to create twenty chances when the (opposing) team defends with eleven players so deep, so I’m very, very happy with the performance we put in,” said Pep Guardiola, recalling that it was only “the beginning of the season.”
AFP/VNA/CVN
