City beat defending champions: Five things we learned from Manchester City 2-0 Barcelona | OneFootball

Manchester City opened their Champions League campaign with a dominant performance over defending champions Barcelona on a special night.

A dream Champions League debut saw 20-year-old defender Naomi Layzell score a 36th minute goal at a rocking Joie Stadium, before seasoned goalscorer Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw made it two late on.

City will take confidence from a standout opening performance in the group stages, where they worked hard in defence and made their chances count.

Here’s five things we learned from the match…

Naomi Layzell’s moment

From relegation with Bristol City to scoring and assisting against the Champions League holders, life comes at you fast if you’re Naomi Layzell. Before tonight, she had never scored a club goal, making her first senior goal a Champions League against Barcelona. The 20-year-old defender might not have been expecting to start tonight, and started at right back rather than her favoured centre back position, but she made her mark. Keeping clean sheets in all three games she’s played as part of a back line for City this season, she is a name we might be seeing more of – on the team sheets and maybe the score sheets too!

City are ready for the biggest stage

The defending Champions came to Manchester with much anticipation surrounding their quality and ability in this tournament, having won back-to-back titles in the last two years. However, it was City who played with intensity from the off, creating the best chances of the match and keeping a lid on the three-time Champions. After two failed attempts at making it through to the group stages, Man City showed exactly why they deserve to be here, competing with the best this year. In their first group game since the 2020-21 campaign, a season where they were eliminated by eventual winners Barcelona in the quarter-finals, they showed they are here to stay in Europe.

Cityzens unite

We saw an exceptional team performance from the home side tonight. A misplaced Viv Miedema backpass to Ayaka Yamashita in the 20th minute was pounced on by Barcelona, but an exceptional clearance off the line from Laia Aleixandri opitimised City’s work rate. Lauren Hemp, Mary Fowler and Bunny Shaw worked effortlessly well as a front three, showing Gareth Taylor why there should be a place for all of them on the pitch. Chants of “City…tearing Barca apart again” were enjoyed by the crowd for the final 15 minutes.

Warding off the pressure

It was almost a perfect start for the European giants, as Caroline Graham-Hansen hit the woodwork after three minutes, after vital fingertips from Ayaka Yamashita kept her out. This set the tone for the rest of the night, in terms of City being in the right places at the right time to keep the mighty Barcelona from finding the net. They didn’t panic and when Aleixandri cleared the ball off the line, it really felt like it was going to be City’s night.

Purpose-built stadiums work

The fans brought an electric atmosphere to the Joie Stadium, that saw a record breaking attendance of 5,508. Compared to the 3,832 we saw at Stamford Bridge, a stadium with a 40,000 capacity, last night, the Joie Stadium was bouncing. The stadium is the only purpose‑built stadium in the Women’s Super League and the fans came out in force to support their team against the Spanish giants. Songs for Shaw, Fowler, Hemp, Alex Greenwood, Jess Park and Yui Hasegawa were sung on repeat all night. I’m sure a Layzell song is in the works…

Featured image credit: Carl Recine/Getty Images