Man City break 15-year-old Champions League record
Man City break 15-year-old Champions League record. Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City side ensured on Wednesday night that the top three spot in the Champions League standings all belonged to the Premier League, after putting five goals past Sparta Prague. By doing so, they now also hold the record of the longest unbeaten run in European Cup history.
Aston Villa’s win over Bologna on Tuesday, followed by Liverpool’s victory against RB Leipzig on Wednesday night, means both sides are still in possession of 100% records in this season’s competition.
But the heavy nature of City’s demolition of Sparta was enough to lift Pep Guardiola’s side into the third place, thanks to a superior goal difference than the six other teams who are also on seven points.
It wasn’t a rout from start to finish, although Phil Foden did open the scoring for the Cityzens with only three minutes on the clock. There were other chances that were saved by visiting goalkeeper Peter Vindahl, but things hinged on Erling Haaland‘s acrobatic backheel volley, which Guardiola reflected afterwards that it is an “incredible joy” to have Haaland in his team.
That goal, set up by Savinho’s skillful dribble, could end up being a Puskas Award nominee in future, and served to break Sparta’s resistance. John Stones got City’s third only six minutes later, followed by another from Haaland only four more minutes after that.
Matheus Nunes, who had already done his confidence the world of good with assists for City’s third and fourth goals, then rounded off the night from the penalty spot in the closing moments.
This was Man City’s 26th Champions League game in a row without defeat, breaking the previous 25-game record set by Manchester United between 2007 and 2009. Guardiola’s side equalled that number last time out against Slovan Bratislava and have now surpassed it.
The 2022/23 European champions haven’t lost a game at this level since May 2022 when Real Madrid won 3-1 in a semi-final second leg at the Bernabeu. To extend the new record to 27 games unbeaten, City travel to Portugal to face Sporting CP on matchday four early next month.
