Five Things Learned: Manchester City 5-0 Sparta Prague (UEFA Champions League) | OneFootball

An Erling Haaland brace propelled Manchester City past Sparta Prague in a 5-0 win at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night to stay third in the Champions League.

The aforementioned Norway international was joined by Phil Foden, Matheus Nunes, and John Stones as goal-scorers, as the Sky Blues gave themselves the biggest goal difference in the league phase.

It took less than three minutes for Foden to get on the scoresheet, as the 24-year-old midfielder beat a Prague defender off the dribble before rifling a low shot to the far post to make it 1-0.

The Premier League champions dominated Sparta Prague for the remainder of the half but could not double their lead before the interval, although a 10-minute flurry saw their lead extended to four when Erling Haaland and John Stones got involved in the action.

Haaland scored in the 58th minute with an acrobatic volley that rivalled his goal against Borussia Dortmund two years ago, set-up by Savinho who dribbled past a Prague defender and lobbed a cross into the centre of the box for the 24-year-old to defy gravity.

John Stones made it 3-0 only six minutes later with a looping header to the far post, assisted by Matheus Nunes following a failed clearance from a corner. Haaland then added a fourth in the 68th minute to cap-off a lovely team goal after being set-up by Foden and Nunes.

Matheus Nunes finished the dominant display with a well-struck penalty to the top corner to make it 5-0 in the 86th minute, with Manchester City next facing Sporting CP in the Champions League league phase on Tuesday, November 5.

Here are the Five Things Learned from City’s thrilling 5-0 victory over Sparta Prague!

Erling Haaland back to scoring

After starting the season with 10 goals in his first five league games, the Norwegian had just mustered one in his last four appearances. However, his two goals on Wednesday night propels him back into form.

Erling Haaland now stands on 44 goals in just 42 Champions League appearances, with his latest brace seeing him surpass Alessandro Del Piero (42 goals in 89 appearances) and Neymar (43 goals in 81 appearances), and draw level with Didier Drogba (44 goals in 92 appearances).

Haaland remains Manchester City’s only striker at the club and his health and form will determine the Sky Blues’ season, although his last few opponents have packed all 10 outfield players behind the ball to complicate things.

With Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne sidelined through injury, along with Phil Foden’s bizarre lack of game time, Erling Haaland has been lacking service for a few weeks now. Let’s hope that changes soon!

Phil Foden continues to shine when allowed to play

It has been a peculiar start to the season for Phil Foden. The 24-year-old star has played less than 500 minutes this campaign, significantly less than every other ‘presumed’ starter who hasn’t dealt with injury issues, except for Kyle Walker (390 minutes).

Injuries to both Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku have seemingly forced Pep Guardiola to play the reigning PFA and Premier League Player of the Year, and the result was a dominant 5-0 win and the team looking more threatening overall.

In his 494 minutes so far this season, Foden has amassed four goal contributions. The encouraging thing behind these stats is that all four of them have come in his last four appearances.

While Phil Foden may not be looking quite as good (yet), as he did during the tail end of last season, his last few starts have showcased that he is starting to return to that level.

Matheus Nunes is beginning to show signs of the second-season bump

First, it was the assist to Erling Haaland against West Ham, this weekend it was back-to-back key moments against Wolves, and then it was a dominant performance on Wednesday night against Sparta Prague.

The Portuguese midfielder’s stat-line is something deserving of high praise. In 89 touches, Nunes managed to grab a goal and two assists, a match-leading eight duels won, three created chances, three dribbles completed, and led the match in tackles as well.

An impressive performance from a man who many (including me) believed was turning into another Kalvin Phillips situation. It’s still early in the season, but Nunes appears to be turning a corner and having the type of season that many of his teammates began to have in their second year under Guardiola.

Pep might have shown another new tactic

There were a few moments in the second half that saw Manuel Akanji stand on the ball, unprovoked, for several seconds at a time. While it isn’t unnatural to see Manchester City defenders standing on the ball, there was a slight tweak that was.

The biggest examples of this were in the 62nd and 67th minute. On both occasions, Akanji would turn his back to the opposition and walk back to his own goal, causing Sparta Prague’s forwards to begin to press, and more importantly, create space to exploit.

The result? Two goals. John Stones’ header came off a corner from an attack that was directly started by Akanji’s backtracking, and Erling Haaland’s second goal in the 68th minute was a lovely team goal that was started from the exact same tactic.

Maybe it’s a one-night-only type of thing, and Premier League sides won’t fall victim to the same trick. But nevertheless, it was still an interesting insight into how quickly Pep Guardiola is able to find cracks in a defence.

Manchester City “breaks” a record

Following Wednesday night’s victory, Manchester City are now unbeaten across their last 26 UEFA Champions League fixtures, breaking the record previously set by Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson.

While I’m not going full Steve Madeley, it does seem a little silly for this record to keep going on… right? Yes, I understand the rules and that Manchester City technically did not lose the game to Real Madrid, they lost the tie via a penalty shootout.

I’m not here to argue if Pep Guardiola, or his teams, are better than Alex Ferguson and his teams. There’s no need to argue that and we all saw what happened when their two teams faced off 15 years ago.

Even now, in the present day, Pep Guardiola has shattered nearly all of Ferguson’s records. This isn’t about the two of them, or the two clubs they managed.

It’s just an opinion that maybe the ruling is a tad silly and needs to be changed.