Ex-Chelsea boss undone by Guardiola as Foden and Haaland combine to devastating effect

By Alessandro Schiavone at Etihad Stadium

Champions League Matchday 1

Manchester City 2-0 Napoli

Goals: Haaland 56', Doku 65'

Red card: Di Lorenzo 21'

Antonio Conte’s Napoli resisted 35 minutes down to 10 men before Erling Haaland’s header set Manchester City on their way to a 2-0 opening-day Champions League victory.

Jeremy Doku put the game beyond doubt when he left four Neapolitans in no-man’s land in the box with a precipitous change of pace before angling a low drive into the far corner in the 65th minute.

Unable to get out of their own half, and at times out of their own box where they camped like Dutch people in southern France during summer, the visitors looked doomed well before the Belgian doubled the lead though.

With the game barely 21 minutes old, the ex-Chelsea manager’s side were left with a mountain to climb when Di Lorenzo was issued a red card for denying the Norwegian juggernaut a clear goalscoring opportunity by tripping him through on goal.

A man more or not, Man City were always gonna have the lion’s share of possession and territorial dominance.

Yet far from being deflated by negative events, Napoli weathered the storm thanks to an outrageous performance by their goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic who marked his first Champions League outing with a five-star display.

Man City Kevin De Bruyne came off to make way for Mathias Olivera after Di Lorenzo's sending off on a forgettable night on his return home. But the raucous applause by his former fans will long live with him .

And De Bruyne must have been blown away by his Serbian teammate with the ex-Torino goalie producing a one-man show to render Man City’s exaggerated ball possession (73-27%) irrelevant.

He first palmed ex-AC Milan star Tijjani Reijnders’ effort over before Haaland sent back-to-back headers over.

All Napoli mustered before numerical inferiority came into play was a Sam Beukema point-blank header which enabled Gianluigi Donnarumma to earn his corn for the day.

With City laying siege, the Serb also kept out Rodri and Gvardiol’s efforts and was lucky when the Croat’s tentative attempt from outside the box flashed just wide off his far-post.

Reijnders failed to add to his solitary goal at Wolves on opening-day when his backwards header looped over the goal. And Politano miraculously cleared the Dutchman’s net-bound shot off the line before the ball rolled into Milinkovic-Savic’s arms.

Napoli were hanging in there and only God knows how it was still goalless at half-time.

More of the same would have been the dream scenario for Conte, his players and the travelling supporters.

But Foden lifted an imaginative short-range pass into Haaland in the box and the ex-Dortmund superstar finally made it count at the third time of asking to put it above Meret’s understudy.

It was his 50th Champions League goal in 49 appearances. No player in the history of the competition has reached that milestone quicker than him. Haaland was once again the scourge of defenders around the globe.

Frustration was finally replaced by elation as Guardiola saw off Conte for a fourth time in his career to pull level with the last man who guided Chelsea to Premier League glory in 2017.

Doku ensured there was no repeat of the Brighton & Hove Albion defeat as the reigning Serie A champions kept chasing shadows.

But Napoli deserve credit for keeping the scoreline respectable.

Many other teams in their place would probably have been on the end of a mauling a man shy for 80 minutes including additional-time.

Manchester City 4-1-4-1

Donnarumma- Dias- Reijnders- Haaland-Doku-Rodri-B.Silva- Gvardiol- O’Reilly-Khusanov- Foden

Napoli  4-1-4-1

Miliinkovic-Savic-Buongiorno-McTominay-De Bruyne-Hojlund-Politano-Di Lorenzo-Beukema- Spinazzola-Lobotka-Anguissa