MADRID, 18 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Manchester City drew 0-0 against Inter Milan on Wednesday in the first round of the Champions League phase, where the English team was kept on a short leash by the Italian team, while Borussia Dortmund and Celtic both lost thrashings.
Pep Guardiola’s men, one of the favourites to lift the European Cup, were far from their best, much to the fault of their rivals. Inter, who lost the 2023 Champions League final to Manchester, held on to Erling Haaland and deserved even more in a great second half at the Etihad Stadium.
The home side were undoubtedly hampered by Kevin De Bruyne’s injury at the restart, with City lacking ideas and lacking their usual vertical play and rich in chances. Phil Foden and Josko Gvardiol came close to scoring and, although the last goal was for Ilkay Gundogan, Inter were more likely to be close to the opposition goal, especially with two former Manchester United players in Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Matteo Darmian.
With a lot of league play still to go, seven more games, everything remains to be seen in this new ‘Champions’ that started with joy at Celtic Park. The Glasgow team scored a handful of goals (5-1) against Slovan Bratislava despite the fact that at half-time the score was 1-0.
Meanwhile, last year’s finalists Borussia Dortmund took three points from their visit to Club Brugge, also with a 3-0 win in the final 15 minutes, thanks to a double from Jamie Gittens and the decisive goal from Serhou Guirassy from the penalty spot in the 96th minute. In addition, Sparta Prague beat Salzburg (3-0) and Bologna and Shakhtar Donetsk drew 0-0.
