Manchester City produced another impressive display as they beat in-form Serie A leaders Napoli to maintain their 100% winning start to this season’s Champions League.
City have cruised to the top of the Premier League – netting 29 goals in eight league games this term.
Billed as an encounter between the two most scintillating attacking sides in Europe, City fully lived up to the hype before the break, giving their Italian rivals a brutal lesson in high-pressing, incisive football.
Goals from Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus – both neat close-range finishes – put them firmly in control and they would have been out of sight had Kevin de Bruyne’s 25-yard shot found the net instead of the crossbar and Kalidou Koulibaly not been well-placed to clear another Jesus effort off the line.
However, Napoli battled back into the game and, despite having a Dries Mertens penalty saved by Ederson, they converted a second through Amadou Diawara’s neat finish to set up a nervy final 17 minutes for the home side.
City’s desire to play out from the back almost cost them on a couple of occasions but they held out for a win that leaves them top of Group F, three points clear of Shakhtar Donetsk, who won 2-1 at Feyenoord.