Manchester City beat AEK Athens 5-1 at the Etihad, six days after losing 4-2 to Paris Saint-Germain on the same ground. Phil Foden scored a hat-trick, his first in the Champions League, and set up another goal.
Without Haaland
Erling Haaland did not play. Floyd Samba, 17, led the line instead. Enzo Maresca said afterwards that Haaland is "okay to start on Saturday", and that the players he left out "had a rest which is good."
Anderson first
City went ahead on 12 minutes. Enzo Fernández hit the bar with a free kick and Elliot Anderson, signed from Nottingham Forest in the summer, scored the rebound from close range. It was his first goal for the club.
Foden made it two on 34, from the right of the six-yard box after Rico Lewis's pass.
Foden, again and again
AEK pulled one back seven minutes after the break, Stavros Pilios finishing a fast break. City replied within five minutes: Foden set up Rayan Cherki on 57.
On 65 Lewis found Foden again, and he scored left footed into the top left corner. On 76 Lewis released substitute Ryan McAidoo, 18, down the right, and he squared for Foden to complete the hat-trick from close range. It was Foden's first hat-trick of any kind since April 2024.
"I've still got a long way before I'm back at my best, but I'm going in the right direction and scoring along the way," Foden told TNT Sports.
Maresca on Foden
Foden ended a ten-month goal drought against Ipswich on Saturday and missed out on England's World Cup squad in the summer. Maresca has backed him.
"I said since day one that I consider him one of the best English players," he said. "For different reasons in the last two or three years, he was not good enough, but I know how good he is. We are just trying to help him because we are sure that he's going to help us this season."
AEK
"They punished every mistake. A deserved victory for City," AEK coach Marko Nikolić said. "The quality in the finishing phase from City was brutal."
City have six points from three games after winning at Porto and losing to PSG. In the Premier League they have won all seven games under Maresca.
