Ayyoub Bouaddi debuts for Manchester Metropolis, however Erling Haaland stars in a 2-0 win in Porto.
Revealed On 8 Sep 2026
Erling Haaland scored twice as Manchester Metropolis started their Champions League marketing campaign with a 2-0 victory at Porto.
Haaland was denied by a hat-trick of tremendous saves by Diogo Costa earlier than half-time, however he was to not be denied early within the second half, as his downward header discovered the underside nook.
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Porto pushed the English giants again for the remainder of the second half however lacked the standard to punish Enzo Maresca’s males regardless of a sequence of sloppy errors from the guests.
Haaland confirmed the distinction in school between the perimeters when he clinically slotted into the underside nook in stoppage time to turn into Metropolis’s third-highest goalscorer of all-time on 167 objectives.
“We’ve got all of the stress; we’ve got to ship on the most important stage, and that’s what we did immediately,” Haaland advised Amazon Prime.
“These are the video games you must win, and we’ve obtained an incredible begin to the season.
“Within the Champions League, you must win video games, as a result of if not, all of a sudden you get all of the stress, and then you definately by no means know what’s going to occur.”
Backed by a file 460 million-pound ($620m) splash on new signings, Maresca has made a optimistic begin to the daunting process of succeeding Pep Guardiola within the Metropolis hot-seat.
However Haaland stays the principle man for Metropolis and has not proven any signal of a hangover from his World Cup heroics with Norway, netting 5 instances in his first 4 video games of the brand new marketing campaign.
Maresca handed Ayyoub Bouaddi his first begin since his 100 million-euro (85.6 million-pound, $117m) transfer from Lille.
Remarkably, the teenage Moroccan continues to be solely the third costliest midfielder Metropolis signed within the switch window after Enzo Fernandez and Elliott Anderson each surpassed the 100 million-pound ($135m) mark.
Bouaddi and Fernandez impressed in a shiny first-half show from Metropolis that solely lacked a aim because of a masterclass by Costa within the Porto aim.
The Portuguese worldwide flung himself excessive to his left to claw away a strong Haaland header with the guests’ first massive likelihood.
Costa foiled the large Norwegian as soon as extra with a superb double save after tremendous play by Bouaddi and Phil Foden within the build-up.
Porto’s final line of defence was lastly breached simply two minutes into the second half.
This time, Haaland’s header from Fernandez’s cross had far much less energy however trickled into the underside nook with Costa wrong-footed.
But the aim provoked a metamorphosis in Porto’s attacking intent, whereas Metropolis had been responsible of easing off.
Gianluigi Donnarumma was saved by the offside flag after he raced off his line to wipe out Pepe for what would have been a transparent penalty.
That was not the one heart-in-mouth second for the Italian, as his tried clearance was charged down by William Gomes however bounced agonisingly broad for the house facet.
Metropolis additionally light badly within the closing phases to simply maintain on to a 1-0 win over newly-promoted Coventry on Saturday.
This time, although, they obtained the second aim to kill Porto off as Haaland slotted in Rayan Ait-Nouri’s cross for his 59th Champions League aim in 59 video games within the competitors.
