45′ + 1′ HALF-TIME: MARSEILLE 0-1 MANCHESTER CITY
45′ De Bruyne flashes in a late corner as the fourth official signals just one extra minute of added time to close out the half.
43′ Radonjic, with a relatively rare start tonight, enjoys a brief burst of possession to cut back in around two defenders and launch a shot from distance. Ederson has it well covered but you can’t blame him for trying.
41′ Gundogan slips behind that relatively rigid back five again and sprays a cross in front of goal that nobody can latch on to. Pep Guardiola will surely be satisfied with his side’s lead, but might he wonder if they should have a second by now?
39′ Andre Villas-Boas doesn’t look too worried on the sideline. He seems to have expected this game, judging by his expression. To his credit, his team have only been unlocked once despite the amount of forward play from City.
37′ An interesting statistical nugget here – Marseille have enjoyed an 80 per cent success rate with their passing. It’s well below the 91 per cent figure enjoyed by City but for the number of critical loose passing errors they’ve committed, it’s perhaps a more surprising number.
35′ Zinchenko! Balerdi is the man at fault with a loose ball inside his own box and the City left-back cracks an effort around the wrong side of the far post as he latches onto it. That could have easily been 2-0.
34′ It has taken them half-an-hour but Marseille are finally starting to look a bit more engaged with this game beyond simply defending their box. Kamara shrugs off a few defenders in midfield and slips a ball down to Sakai, pushing forward on the wing. Cuisance tries to draw a foul a moment later and duly loses possession as a result.
32′ End-to-end half-chances! Marseille break through the middle, powered by Kamara and a dangerous ball into the City box has to be snuffed out bu Dias. Then, Sterling takes on the ball a moment later at the opposite end and foxes two defenders inside the box before his last touch takes it out for a goal-kick.
30′ A heart-in-mouth moment for City fans – and not for the right reasons. De Bruyne goes down outside the Marseille box and stays down for more than a minute. Ultimately, he’s back on his feet and good to continue; he looks to have only been caught on the edge of the foot and left with a stinger.
28′ That being said, City have only lashed five shots so far at Marseille’s goal mouth. Their press is suddenly unlocked, in a moment of counter clarity by Rongier, and it’s only a Cuisance cross that goes straight to Ederson that means it fizzles out.
26′ This is almost a training drill for City, isn’t it? Not to bang the drum but Marseille have not looked at the races going forward. The key consolation is surely the fact that it’s just one goal so far.
24′ Much has been made of the fact City have been sporting a long injury list this season – Sergio Aguero is the latest face to join the wait for the medical table – but there’s also no getting away from the fact they have some of the best squad depth in Europe among their ranks. This is still, on paper – and certainly in practice today – a frightening XI when they are on song.
22′ A lazy challenge from Caleta-Car now allows De Bruyne to whip in one of his typically pacy free-kicks from the right edge of the penalty box for City, but Mandanda does well to read Laporte coming onto it and makes a clean save.
20′ How does Andre Villas-Boas approach this game now? Down inside the first quarter and his side have had only 35 per cent of the ball – and most of that has been inside their own back third. They need to find some forward momentum; playing five defenders, an unfamiliar formation, has kept them hemmed in.
18′ Manchester City have missed Kevin De Bruyne during his brief layoff, of that there can be no doubt. He reads that poor pass well and picks out the right ball rather than finishing himself. Smart and generous work from the Belgian.
18′ GOAL! FERRAN TORRES PUTS MANCHESTER CITY AHEAD! 1-0! Two in two games for the Blues man as he taps home an easy finish following a defensive nightmare from Marseille. A back-pass to nowhere, speculatively headed towards Caleta-Car, falls simply to De Bruyne, who threads it back across the box for the Spaniard to drill home past Mandanda at close range. Textbook and all too easy for the visitors.
16′ How did Marseille get away with that? Gundogan and Zinchenko smash consecutive square passes across the six-yard area from either side and the hosts fail to clear either convincingly. They were fortunate that Ferran Torres was completely AWOL in attack for a moment.
14′ Nice work from Foden now as the Stockport native tickles a low half-volley towards Mandanda. it goes straight to the keeper but it’s just the latest reminder that City have so many attacking threats to call upon.
12′ Not a moment too soon, Rongier and Cuisance engineer their side’s first real attacking venture of the game. It comes undone with a poor final delivery into the box, straight to Laporte, and City launch a blistering counter that forces a mass of white shirts to back-pedal at pace.
10′ This feels like the start of a vintage City performance, you must say, They are steamrollering Marseille around the final third, winning the one-on-one and playing rapid paces around the back-line. The hosts have paid respect with a five-man defence – but has it stymied their creativity entirely too?
8′ The visitors’ latest set-piece comes to nothing as Marseille’s defence manage to hold off Dias, lurking around the far edge of the box. There’s absolutely no sign of a counter move from the hosts yet.
6′ Zinchenko – restored to fitness and holding the ball well in these early exchanges – flicks it through to Foden, who cuts back into a defender, winning a corner in the process. This is a sharp City performance so far. Marseille have hardly got out of their own half.
4′ A second corner follows the first for City and Dias plants a header over the bar. City follow it up with a long cross looking for Sterling to latch onto, with Mandanda just snapping it up before the England man can get there.
2′ As City earn an early corner – De Bruyne cracks a volley from outside the box which deflects out of play – a moment to talk about the choice to leave Dimitri Payet on the bench by the hosts. He’s a fearsome attacker, of that there can be no doubt – but this formation looks to be geared towards soaking up the visitors’ pressure more than taking the game to them. He has no place – for now.
1′ After contrasting gestures ahead of the whistle – City kneel while Marseille stand together on the edge of the centre circle – we are underway in this Champions League clash in Group C!
The teams are out at Stade Velodrome.for the Champions League anthem.
Marseille will be looking for their first points in Europe of course – downed by a Ahmed Mahgoub goal in injury time – and they may feel that they could have a crack against a City team who haven’t set the game alight this term. They’re unbeaten in their last five league games too, to boot; they’ll fancy their chances here.
City named the exact same XI at the weekend for that frustrating draw against West Ham and David Moyes that they did against Porto – so it is perhaps no surprise that, for the third game in seven days, Guardiola has rotated some key names. Phil Foden, after proving an astute half-time change at London Stadium, will be expected to impress here once more.
Subs: John Stones, Zack Steffen, Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez, Joao Cancelo, Scott Carson, Eric Garcia, Felix Nmecha, Tommy Doyle, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Cole Palmer, Adrian Bernabe.
MANCHESTER CITY (4-3-3): Ederson; Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan; Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling, Ferran Torres.
Subs: Simon Ngapandouetnbu, Kevin Strootman, Morgan Sanson, Dario Benedetto, Dimitri Payet, Luis Henrique, Yohann Pele, Pape Gueye, Marley Ake, Yuto Nagatomo, Valere Germain.
MARSEILLE (5-3-2): Steve Mandanda; Hiroki Sakai, Leonardo Balerdi, Alvaro, Duje Caleta-Car, Jordan Amavi; Valentin Rongier, Boubacar Kamara, Michael Cuisance; Florian Thauvin, Nemanja Radonjic.
There’s five changes for City from the team that downed Porto a week ago and then drew with West Ham, as Kevin De Bruyne, Aymeric Laporte, Phil Foden, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Ferran Torres all move into the starting lineup. with Raheem Sterling shifted into a more central role up front. Florian Thauvin meanwhile leads the line for the hosts – and there is a place for Bayern Munich loanee Michael Cuisance too, who arrived at the club following a bizarre failed medical fiasco at Leeds United.
In their way today though are last season’s Ligue 1 runners-up, coached by a man who ended a half-decade exodus for the club from Europe’s most prestigious high table. Andre Villas-Boas will be a familiar face for some, the man whose ill-fated Premier League spells with Chelsea and Tottenham coincided with City’s first real flush of modern-day success – but having rebuilt his reputation since his time in England, the former Porto boss will have a point to prove against a man he has credited as an inspiration.
Mere months after an ignominious quarter-final upset exit against one French outfit, Pep Guardiola’s side get the chance to snag a spot of cross-channel revenge at the expense of another, with the Spaniard looking to follow up last week’s win over Porto by snagging another three points on the continent. The Blues were joint-favourites with some bookmakers before the start of the campaign to finally win this tournament – and their manager will know that any slip-up could prove costly in a cut-throw competition.
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League, as Premier League heavyweights Manchester City look to make it two wins from two in Europe this season with a trip to France to face Ligue 1 side Marseille at Stade Velodrome.
