Désiré Doué, Ousmane Dembélé and Vitinha had the defending champions cruising into the half-time interval at the Etihad, before Erling Haaland pulled one back eight minutes after the break, making history by becoming City’s all-time top scorer in the Champions League with 37 and becoming the fastest player in the competition’s history to reach 60 goals.
Maghnes Akliouche added a fourth for the French side before Haaland again found the net, sweeping in from Ayyoub Bouaddi’s cross in a landmark night for our forward.
It was a chaotic second 45 minutes where the Blues showed spirit, character and determination, also striking the woodwork twice through Enzo Fernández and Haaland, with 42 total attempts on goal between both sides across the 90 minutes - 21 of those for City in just the second-half - in a pulsating encounter under the lights.
“First-half we need to do a lot better, myself included, for the first two goals,” began Guéhi in his interview with City Studios after the game. “I think they were a bit more aggressive and won a lot of one on one duels in the first-half which allowed them the platform to score them goals.
“Second-half I think was the complete opposite, we were a lot more aggressive. We won a lot more of the duels which gave us the platform to go and score those goals.
“Not the best first-half but a lot of positives to take from the second-half. It says a lot about not just the players but the football club in general, the fans stuck by us the whole game. The support was amazing.
“I think every single person knew that as long as we kept fighting, there was something there for us. I think it’s only the beginning of the competition.
“Hopefully we can learn from this and put better performances in future games.”
The defender also spoke about Haaland’s new record, touched on what the team will learn from the defeat and looked ahead to the weekend’s fixture against Ipswich Town.
Watch the entire interview via the video at the top of the page.
