Pep Guardiola is not going to forget his 300th match in charge of Manchester City in a hurry.
One hundred and nine days after their painful night in Porto, when they lost a final to Chelsea they were expected to win, they came roaring out of the blocks to get their Group A campaign off to a flying start against RB Leipzig.
Six goals, six different scorers.
New £100m man Jack Grealish scored an absolute classic as he became the first Englishman to both score and assist on their Champions League debut since Wayne Rooney in September 2004.
“The players are always talking about last season’s final. They’re determined to go one better this year,” said Grealish, whose goal put City 4-2 ahead. “It’s a good start for us. Hopefully we can go all the way this time.”
In an incident-packed game, Leipzig finished with 10-men after former Manchester City player Angelino was sent off for two bookable offences.
This was Manchester City’s highest-scoring Champions League game, surpassing the eight goals in their 5-3 victory over Monaco in February 2017
“What a great performance, particularly going forward, what a fabulous attacking performance,” former England midfielder Owen Hargreaves told BT Sport.
With Nathan Ake opening the scoring, 10 different players have scored in a City shirt in the past four games.
In addition, they have now rattled in 16 goals in the past three home matches.
Boss Pep Guardiola then urged the support of his club’s fans for Saturday’s visit of Southampton in the Premier League after the rigours of their Champions League opener.
“I’d like more people to come on Saturday,” he said. “We will be tired. Southampton are so dangerous. I invite all our people to come at 3pm to watch our game.”
