Man City 5-0 Sparta Prague: Erling Haaland nets twice in emphatic win

Defying the laws of physics, the big fella. Try describing that one. An utterly astonishing moment. Moments he has conjured before but moments that continue to briefly steal some of your breath.

Erling Haaland wasn’t facing the Sparta Prague goal. He was about 10 yards out, Savinho’s floaty cross good enough to cause mild panic yet not really one to attack. Lay it off to somebody else. That was the sensible target man play.

Haaland, constantly thwarted all night, acted on instinct in fancying a volley. It suited the right if he was to attempt the audacious but the Norwegian went one further. With his left, effectively backheeling a volley into the corner. A backheeled volley, if any such thing exists.

The Etihad gasped as it pinged up on the big screen; Haaland shrugged, grinned, another day at the office. There cannot be many – if any – players in the world who would try that, let alone complete it.

And that is what he does, the man who divides opinion of those who would rather pick holes than just enjoy the raw emotion that a herculean can provoke. Erling Haaland does things that Manchester City supporters will remember for decades to come and that will be his legacy here.

It opened up this game, City’s second of the evening and making sure they eased past Sparta who, had they retreated any further, may have found themselves queuing at the hot meat counter at Asda over the road. Pep Guardiola says he enjoys the challenge of finding new ways of breaking down low blocks and it is a good job because if he didn’t, what would be the meaning of all this?

This is the life of City. As patient as possible against opposition standing on their goalkeeper’s toes, forcibly pushing at the locked door. Once it prises open, they then go looting. Haaland helped himself to another - with John Stones heading a fourth and Matheus Nunes joining in as City set a new record for the longest unbeaten run in Champions League history.

Guardiola bristled on Tuesday afternoon when discussing injuries, recalling anger at those sustained on international duty, with captain Kyle Walker’s knee problem the latest of his concerns. That was before it became clear that wingers Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish have each suffered fitness issues, too, which made Guardiola’s dark mood more understandable.

Doku and Grealish, the pair who vie for the left-hand side berth in behind Erling Haaland, do not sound like mere one-game absentees either in a season when City’s small squad – a small squad by design, it should be added – has felt a touch stretched. Guardiola named seven substitutes, two of them goalkeepers and another, Nico O’Reilly, taken out of the Under-19 youth side to make up the numbers.

Some of those who have played the most minutes so far – Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic in particular – were given a rest but Guardiola knows that he needs a fuller complement more often to avoid heavy legs during the unrelenting winter.

The flip side of a raft of absences is that some of the protagonists have barely featured. Kevin De Bruyne for one – he is due back soon, potentially the weekend – but also Phil Foden. Illness kept him out for weeks and, with energy levels low, City have taken time to reintroduce him. His cameo at Wolves altered the complexion on Sunday and within three minutes of his season’s fourth start, he gave them a lead.

A classic Foden effort, taking in Manuel Akanji’s pass, shifting out of his feet and flashing beyond Peter Vindahl. Precise, across the body.

It was the sort of finish this stadium came accustomed to last year, one in which Foden broke Premier League records for goal contributions as a midfielder and picked up the vaunted individual awards in yet another title win. His importance grew ten-fold in what now appears to be a carefully managed rise by his club. More nights like these and the few months of watching on will be forgotten.

They need him against opposition like Sparta, really, and how City have occasionally struggled to break down those who sit back recently. Somebody so fleet-footed in tiny areas of space, with the Czech champions offering no room to work. That is actually when Foden finds his very best.

The 24-year-old stung the goalkeeper’s palms with another vicious effort, while Haaland met an inspired Vindahl, whom somehow clawed wide a cranking header directed towards the far corner and later shovelled another away from danger. Sandwiched between those was a Haaland header hooked off the line before Nathan Ake thought he’d forced in a second 100 seconds after the restart.

A bit scrappy, Ake squeezing in a Foden corner, only for referee Maurizio Mariani to have adjudged that the Dutchman handled. Ake is another who has been completely missing, this his first start. He’d played three minutes of club football beforehand, 135 for the Netherlands before an injury during the September break set him back.

Not to be denied, Haaland would make the night about him in mind-blowing fashion and had time to pass his second beyond Vindahl. Nunes then crossed for Stones – another on the comeback trail – to loop a header into the far corner. Nunes, bright all evening, won and scored a late penalty.

More to follow...