Phil Foden netted a hat-trick as dominant Manchester City cruised to a 5-1 victory over AEK Athens to secure their second Champions League win of the campaign. Foden had endured a 10-month goal drought before scoring in consecutive matches, adding to his weekend strike against Ipswich with three tidy finishes, the first two of which came from Rico Lewis assists.
Dominant First Half Performance
Manchester City proved too strong for their Greek visitors even while resting Erling Haaland in the stands, with Enzo Maresca handing 17-year-old Floyd Samba a start in his place. Elliot Anderson also found the net during a commanding first half that saw City produce 10 attempts on Alberto Brignoli’s goal, alongside Allan hitting the crossbar and Rayan Cherki coming close.
AEK failed to register a shot on target until Stavros Pilios scored early in the second half to narrow the deficit. However, any hopes of a comeback were quickly dashed when Cherki scored City’s third goal five minutes later, before Foden wrapped up his statement hat-trick.
Manager and Player Reactions
Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca stated, “I’ve said since day one, I consider him one of the best English players. For different reasons, in the last two years, he was not good enough. But I know how good he is. We are trying to help him because we are sure he’s going to help us.” Maresca added regarding the overall display, “It was not easy, especially after the PSG game. We had two games that we certainly needed to win, and we did our job.”
Phil Foden told TNT Sports after the match, “I enjoyed that a lot. We showed determination again; it wasn’t pretty at times, giving sloppy passes away, but I thought we stuck at the game plan, we kept going, and in the end we broke them down.” He continued, “I’ve still got a long way [before I’m back at my best], but I’m going in the right direction and scoring along the way. It definitely helps.”
AEK Athens boss Marko Nikolic said, “We didn’t want to sit back and try to survive, like I said before the game. We wanted to be dangerous with the ball.” He added, “But of course the quality in the finishing phase from City was brutal. These guys were much better in the final third than us. They punished every mistake. A deserved victory for City.”
Manchester City will turn their attention to their upcoming fixtures as the Champions League group stage continues.
Source: SkySports | News
