Very young goalscorer at winning City; Diks and Malen are equal


Wednesday, November 2, 2022 at 10:55 PM• Sam Vreeswijk

Manchester City have closed the group stage of the Champions League with a win. The team of coach Pep Guardiola was 3-1 too strong for Sevilla in their own Etihad Stadium. Rafa Mir gave the visitors the lead in the first half, but with goals from Rico Lewis, Julián Álvarez and Riyad Mahrez, City still took the longest. In the same group FC Copenhagen and Borussia Dortmund played a draw: 1-1. Last week it was already announced what the final score in Group G would be.

Manchester City v Seville 3-1
City already secured group win with a 0-0 draw at Dortmund last week. As a result, Guardiola decided to start with a B-team against Sevilla. For example, Ederson, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva started on the bench at the Citizens. Nathan Aké also had to settle for a reserve role, while Erling Braut Haaland was not part of the selection due to a minor injury. Karim Rekik was in the starting line-up at Sevilla and ex-Eredivisionists Kasper Dolberg and Nemanja Gudelj started on the bench.

In a rainy Manchester, the home team dominated, but the visitors took the lead after half an hour: Mir placed a corner from Isco. Ten minutes before that, Mir had already had the chance to score the opening goal, but then he saw his attempt stopped by goalkeeper Stefan Ortega. On the other side of the pitch, City were dangerous in the first half via Cole Palmer (over), Ilkay Gundogan (side net) and Jack Grealish (Yassine Bounou save). Despite the preponderance, the hosts went into halftime with a deficit.

City tied the score early in the second half via 17-year-old Champions League debutant Lewis. Álvarez found Lewis with a nice cross ball, after which the right back hit hard: 1-1. Guardiola then decided to make a number of substitutions and that worked out well: De Bruyne was already good for an assist one minute after his substitute. The Belgian found Álvarez with a nice pass, who outplayed Bounou and gave City the lead. Riyad Mahrez took care of the final chord in the 83rd minute, by shooting the 3-1 into the top corner after a mistake by José Ángel Carmona on a pass from Álvarez.

FC Copenhagen v Borussia Dortmund 1-1
Dortmund, where Donyell Malen started in the base, was already certain of the second place in the group. At Copenhagen, which already knew in advance that it would finish last in Group G anyway, Kevin Diks and Ajax mercenary Mohamed Daramy started the match. The same Daramy almost had an assist to his name after nine minutes, but teammate Roony Bardghji was unable to head in his cross. It was Dortmund that made the opening goal fifteen minutes later via Thorgan Hazard, who took care of the 0-1 with a volley. After Gregor Kobel had prevented Viktor Claesson from scoring with a good save, it was still 1-1 just before half-time: Hákon Arnar Haraldsson scored on Claesson’s pass, thus making Copenhagen’s first Champions League goal this season.

At the start of the second half, Malen had an excellent opportunity to put Dortmund ahead again. The former PSV player received the ball from Karim Adeyemi, but did not get the ball into the goal from close range. After more than an hour of play, the Germans were again close to 1-2. This time, however, a long shot from Youssoufa Moukoko hit the post. Copenhagen didn’t create any serious chances in the second half, but eventually managed to finish the third draw of this Champions League campaign.