City bounced back from the Group A loss to Paris Saint-Germain with a superb performance against Club Brugge.
City were magnificent from start to finish, with the 5-1 victory - if anything - flattering the hosts.
The scoreline equalled our winning margin in a Champions League away game, having beaten Basel and Feyenoord 4-0 - though this is the fi
Joao Cancelo opened the scoring, with Riyad Mahrez doubling the lead before the break.
Kyle Walker and Cole Palmer added further strikes in the second-half before Brugge pulled back a barely deserved consolation.
Mahrez then bagged his second of the night a few minutes later to restore order.
The only slight criticism, if there was any, was the margin of victory wasn’t even greater.
WHAT HAPPENED?
City set about their task straight from kick-off and were soon swarming over the Belgians.
Brugge couldn’t handle the trickery and vision of Jack Grealish, Bernardo and Phil Foden in what was an opening battering by the Premier League champions and the writing was on the wall for the hosts who were fortunate to see the offside flag raised after Grealish and Rodrigo both had goals disallowed.
It was total dominance as City’s pressure continued to pin Brugge back and the only surprise was they managed to get to the halfway mark before they finally conceded.
Inevitably, it was the outstanding Foden who finally unpicked the lock with a 40-yard lofted pass finding the run of Cancelo who chested the ball down before calmly poking the ball through Simon Mignolet’s legs.
Brugge were looking more ragged by the minute, with several forceful challenges leaving Bernardo, Grealish, Foden and De Bruyne on the turf.
Two minutes before the break, City got the second goal their dominance thoroughly deserved as De Bruyne stumbled over the ball on the edge of the box and Mahrez looked to take on the opportunity before being hacked down by Nsoko for a clear penalty.
Mahrez calmly sent Mignolet the wrong way to put City in total command.
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There was more of the same after the re-start.
Mahrez was having a field day in the right flank and if you allow a player with his technique too much time and space, it will end badly!
For City’s third of the evening, Mahrez found De Bruyne and his delightfully deft prod sent Kyle Walker clear in the box and his low angled shot found the bottom left corner.
Champagne football.
Pep Guardiola took the wise decision to rest some tiring legs and it was two of the subs who combined superbly to put City 4-0 up on 67 minutes.
Raheem Sterling scampered down the left flank, looked up and spotted Cole Palmer‘s run down the middle. picked him out and the youngster controlled the ball before curling it into the left corner of the net - both had been on the pitch for just two minutes.
It was unselfish play by Sterling and yet another example of Palmer‘s growing reputation.
Brugge managed to keep their record of scoring in every game this season by pulling one back through Hans Vanaken - but a couple of minutes later, Fernandinho sent Mahrez clear to make it 5-1
