Olympiacos 0-1 Manchester City
Manchester City went six points clear at the top of Champions League Group C tonight after dominating the entire 90-plus minutes against Olympiacos.
A goal from Phil Foden gave Pep Guardiola’s side a first half lead and only a fantastic performance by the Greek’s keeper Jose Sa kept the score down.
The Sky Blues have looked at home in Europe this season and the Champions League 2020 betting odds pitch them as second favourites to win the tournament behind only FC Bayern.
And on this performance that makes perfect sense, as the only criticism would be that City didn’t win by a much bigger margin.
In the other early Champions League 2020 results tonight, Borussia Monchengladbach took control of Group B with a 4-0 victory over Shakhtar Donetsk.
Highlights of the game
Manchester City’s Phil Foden scores the first goal of the Champions League match against Olympiacos
The sad news of Diego Maradona’s passing was marked by a minute silence as the players and staff paid their respect to Argentina’s World Cup legend. And then Manchester City set about trying to emulate the great man with some brilliant football in the opening minutes.
When Benjamin Mendy’s dangerous cross was half cleared, Rodri sent a thunderbolt of a volley goalwards but it was to close to Sa.
Moments later, Bernardo Silva headed over when he met a Mendy cross at the near post, and then the in-form Foden tested the keeper with an angled drive.
Olympiacos tried to get a foothold in the game but the Sky Blues continued to pin them back, and Sa was the saviour again when Silva put Gabriel Jesus clean through on goal.
But he was finally beaten on 36 minutes when Jesus executed a brilliant back-heel to put Foden through and he slid the ball home to make it 1-0.
Raheem Sterling almost doubled the lead with a free-kick just before the break.
He had wicked pace and dip on his shot and Sa stretched to tip it over the bar. Only a brilliant half from their keeper had kept Olympiacos in the game by the break.
And the pattern continued.
Ilkay Gundogan fizzed an early second half shot wide and Sa made a comfortable save from a Silva effort, and then Sterling looked to have a certain goal when he met a pinpoint cross from Mendy but his first touch let him down.
The Sky Blues were totally dominant but still needed another goal to be sure of a win.
Joao Cancelo had a chance to finish off a brilliant City move but he shot straight at Sa.
As City cut through the Greek defence with ease, Silva tried a cheeky back-heel but his effort was also too close to the Olympiacos stopper. Foden almost scored his second but he headed wide from a Cancelo cross.
Sergio Aguero came on in the latter stages for his first appearance in four months after suffering a knee injury back in June.
But as the clock ran down, it was Olympiacos who surprised us with their first shot of the game on 88 minutes.
Key statistics
The Sky Blues were at odds of 1.31 to win, and here at SBOTOP we expected a comfortable victory for the Premier League side which it certainly was.
The Sky Blues had the most first shots on target (7) of any club in the competition this season. They had 12 shots in total during the first 45 while Olympiacos had none.
By the final whistle, the shot count had reached 22 to two, and 11 to nil on target. IT was total domination for Guardiola’s side.
Manchester City have never lost when Phil Foden has scored, winning 16 and drawing one.
It’s the second time the Sky Blues have won their opening four Champions League games under Guardiola but it’s the first time they have won the first four without conceding.
What’s next?
This weekend, the Sky Blues return to Premier League action with a home match against Burnley.
City’s 2-0 defeat to Spurs left them down in 13th position. But they’re only eight points off the top and the last two trips to the Etihad by the Clarets ended in 5-0 thrashings for the visitors.
Sean Dyche’s team won their first game of the season on Monday against Crystal Palace.
Having begun the campaign with a long list of injuries, they are now almost back to full strength with key players Ben Mee and Jay Rodriguez back in the side.
So the Clarets will be hopeful of a 4-0 this time!
Olympiacos return to domestic football too with a top of the table clash away to second place Aris, who are level with the champions on 19 points but with an inferior goal difference.
Both are unbeaten with six wins from seven and something might just give in the Greek Superleague clash of the weekend.
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