Erling Haaland maintained his extraordinary start to the season with a brace of goals with Phil Foden and Ruben Dias also on target.
But on a night filled with positives aplenty, the City boss was also keen to highlight a fine first appearance in City colours from new signing Akanji.
Just five days after joining us from Borussia Dortmund, the Swiss international slotted into the heart of our defence effortlessly, catching the eye with his composure on the ball and assured reading of the game.
And reflecting on a superb night’s work in southern Spain, the boss said Akanji’s display demonstrated what a quality addition to the squad he will be.
“He trained one day and a half with us, but he showed what experience he has at Dortmund and what a good central defender Manchester City brought to us,” Guardiola declared.
“He has quality similar like Aymer (Laporte) - he can break the lines with the pass.
“Manuel is really intelligent and great with the ball. City brought me and the club a fantastic player.
“He’s a fantastic age at 27 and mature so yeah, really good.
“He reads really well the spaces, and I am very pleased for him.”
Meanwhile the boss also had further warm words for Haaland in the wake of the Norwegian striker’s latest remarkable scoring exploits.
His two goals took his tally for the season to 12 – and made it 25 goals in just 20 Champions League games.
“I think his numbers in all his career, even in previous teams, is quite similar. He has an incredible sense of goal,” Guardiola added.
“Hopefully he can continue. It’s not just the goals. Always he is there. Julian (Alvarez) played 15, 20 minutes and had a chance too.
“I have said many times we have two incredible strikers.
“We have incredible numbers in terms of goals and we need to continue like that. Another battle against Tottenham and hopefully we can continue.”
