City win as Inter stay perfect, Barca held in Champions League
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PARIS: Manchester City eased to a 4-1 win over Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday to stay unbeaten in the Champions League and Inter Milan kept up their perfect start, while Barcelona salvaged a point at Club Brugge.
Phil Foden twice curled in from outside the area and Erling Haaland slammed home his fifth goal of the competition as City brushed Dortmund aside at the Etihad.
Waldemar Anton pulled one back for Dortmund before Rayan Cherki netted City’s fourth in stoppage time.
Pep Guardiola’s side have 10 points from four matches and sit fourth in the table at the halfway stage of the league phase.
“We are in a good position, maybe with a win against Bayer Leverkusen and a few more we can be in the position to finish in the first eight,” Guardiola told TNT Sports, as he lauded Foden’s sparkling display.
“I would say he is already there [back to his best form]. He does not need to get closer. He is already there. It is true we have missed goals and he got two incredible goals,” said Guardiola.
Guardiola also backed the midfielder, who has not played for England since March, for a return to Thomas Tuchel’s squad.
“Thomas is so smart and wise, and knows exactly what national team needs,” he said. “Thomas knows perfectly well how good Phil is. [But] the national team is different, it is a short time, create a team when you are not a team, because you are not there all together every day.
“But come on, Phil — there’s no person in this country and all around the world who doesn’t know his quality and ability.
“But England is so lucky to have many good players. That’s why Phil has to push himself to be better, because when he is called, he can say ‘Okay, I’m going to show how good I am’.” Asked if Foden was on his way back to top form, Guardiola said: “He is already there.”
Meanwhile, Inter moved back alongside Bayern Munich and Arsenal at the top with a fourth straight win after scraping past Kazakh outsiders Kairat Almaty.
Ofri Arad cancelled out Lautaro Martinez’s opener nine minutes after half-time but a thumping low drive from Carlos Augusto snatched Inter a 2-1 victory, bolstering their hopes of qualifying directly for the last 16.
In Belgium, Barcelona came from behind three times to rescue a 3-3 draw as Lamine Yamal helped them overcome a shaky defensive performance.
Barca’s defence was shredded on multiple occasions by the hosts as Brugge winger Carlos Forbs struck twice and set one up for Nicolo Tresoldi.
Ferran Torres, Yamal and a Christos Tzolis own goal saved Barca from what would have been a humiliating defeat, even though they have several players out injured.
There was more drama at the end as Brugge thought they had scored the winner in added time through Romeo Vermant, thanks to what looked to have been a massive blunder by Wojciech Szczesny.
But the VAR video review ruled out the goal as the forward fouled the keeper in his effort to recover the ball, helping Barca rescue a point.
Despite the inconsistent results, Barca coach Hansi Flick said his team would not abandon their approach, even though opponents have worked out how to get in behind Barca’s back-line with alarming regularity.
“We can [play a] low block and defend in the final third, or we go on our way, our philosophy, how we want to do it, and make things much better,” said Flick on Wednesday.
“We have struggled a little bit, we don’t have the confidence. Of course we can speak about changing everything, but I am not a coach to change this, because we want to play like our DNA is. We don’t want to defend in a low block and then make some transition to win 1-0.”
CHELSEA TOIL AS NEWCASTLE TRIUMPH
Earlier on Wednesday, Alejandro Garnacho spared Chelsea’s blushes as the Argentine’s equaliser rescued a 2-2 draw against Qarabag.
Enzo Maresca’s side were in danger of an embarrassing loss in Baku after falling behind in the first half.
Estevao Willian gave Chelsea an early lead but Leandro Andrade equalised before Marko Jankovic converted a penalty to give the Azerbaijani minnows hope of a famous upset.
Former Manchester United winger Garnacho came off the bench to bail out the Blues with his composed finish after the interval.
“I think the big difference was inside the box,” said Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca.
“Again we conceded silly goals that we could avoid and we could probably finish better with most of the actions that we created.”
At St James Park, Dan Burn’s superb header set Newcastle United on their way to a 2-0 home win over Athletic Bilbao.
Joelinton added a second shortly after half-time as the Magpies won for the third time in four European outings to move up to sixth place.
“Really pleased with today,” Newcastle manager Eddie Howe told TNT Sports.
“We had a quick turnaround for this game. I don’t think it was us at our best but we’re in a good position now in this competition.”
HISTORIC PAFOS WIN
In the other early game, newcomer Pafos earned its first-ever league-phase win by beating Spanish club Villarreal 1-0 at home in Cyprus.
“This was a historic win for the club and for Pafos,” defender David Goldar said. “Every year we grow and we are improving and long may that continue. We’ve created something special here but we also need to stay humble.”
In its previous matches, Pafos lost 5-1 to Bayern at home and drew 0-0 at both Kairat and Olympiakos.
Villarreal, back in the Champions League for the first time since reaching the semifinals in 2022, remains winless after four matches. It was coming off three consecutive victories in matches in the Spanish league and Copa del Rey.
OSIMHEN ON TOP
Ajax are also still without a point after Victor Osimhen bagged a hat-trick to power Galatasaray to a 3-0 victory in Amsterdam.
With the treble, Osimhen has moved atop the Champions League scoring table.
The Nigeria striker now has six goals this season in Europe’s elite club competition. That’s one more than Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Haaland.
Following the poor form the Dutch giants Ajax sacked their John Heitinga on Thursday. Ajax has one win in its last seven matches across all tournament.
Elsewhere, Jose Mourinho’s Benfica slumped to a fourth defeat in a row as Patrik Schick got the only goal in a 1-0 win for Bayer Leverkusen in Lisbon.
At the Velodrome, Lazar Samardzic hit a 90th-minute winner as Atalanta downed Olympique de Marseille 1-0 despite missing an early penalty.
Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2025
