Man City ease past Porto - 5 Live reaction

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1:27Third victory for Manchester City, Kelly, against a dogged and persistent Porto side. Goalkeeper Diogo Costa was in fine form in the first half, saving a Haaland header and then an outstanding double save from Haaland and Ryan Cherky. But early in the second half, Haaland's header went in off the left-hand post to give City the lead. He added a second in injury time, guiding the ball home from 8 Norris Pass. And the two goals means he becomes the third highest goal scorer for Manchester City. Porto showed fight, but didn't have the quality to seriously scare City, who made a winning start under Enzo Maresca to this league phase.

2:04Pat, we talked about fight. There was a physicality to Porto and a fantastic performance from their goalkeeper, Diogo Costa, in the first half particularly. Yeah, he had to get his body in the right places, and it didn't always look like the most dramatic saves, although that one-handed save from Haaland's head was very, very special indeed. But the rest of the time, yeah, they defended stoutly. They worked very, very hard. But as Ian was saying, the quality was limited in comparison to Manchester City, which of course should be the case compared to the differences that they've been able to spend, not just in this transfer window, but many more.

2:40But the things you're looking at Manchester City, you're thinking to yourself, look, where is it heading? How good is it just now? How good can it get? And that means looking at the new players. and I thought Enzo Fernandes was pretty special. He's got an assist today. Buades, he's an absolute no-brainer. He's brilliant. You get him at that age and you don't think he might work. He is going to be a class act. Tired in the second half, without a doubt, without a shadow of a doubt. But before that, he just looked... I mean, he looked as if he was playing a different game from everyone else because he had so much time and developed so much time for himself and enjoyed when he came on.

3:17with Boussame Nyon to some extent Foden struggling a little bit and Jai May will get more chances than he thought right at the start here and when he came on he looked really really sharp but that's taken it all the way for the guy who gets the man of the match and that's Haaland he's pretty much unstoppable in nights like this, he only got two goals and he'll be absolutely gutted he could have got four and probably deserved four Yeah, player of the match Erling Haaland, but Naidan were you as impressed by the midfield performance of Manchester City Is that where they got control of this game, do you think?

3:50Yeah, I think so. I think very much think so. And to be honest as well, I'm going to be a bit biased and give credit to Ruben Diaz and Mark Gehi. I thought those two were excellent as well, being very, very dominant in terms of, say, trying to counter-press and help the side sort of keep possession high up the field. I was getting to them, don't worry. No, no, no, I don't care. You've got to do it at the start. There's no point in doing it at the end. I know how this works. Oh, we've run out of time. Can't talk about defenders. Yeah, but they're only defenders. Hey, listen, they've got more touch on that ball than a lot of the midfielders.

4:17But yeah, I think the midfield was, for me, it did look good. I think there was a spell in that second half where, say, Scherke became a little bit sloppier, so it affected it just a touch. But in terms of their general play, receiving the ball under pressure, the decision-making, the understanding, the aggression to try and win the ball back, I thought they were excellent. And obviously Enzo Fernandes is Enzo Fernandes. He's, you know, a World Cup winner. He's been doing it for Chelsea for these last few years. But it's very easy to forget about his 18 years of age. You know, he looked very, very comfortable out there alongside some really good players.

4:46And, you know, if you believe they can continue to get better, understand the team, understand the league and just, you know, just even grow. I think he might still be growing. You know, it was good. It was impressive. And I'm glad that Pat liked it because I enjoyed it as well. But you said yourself, Enzo Fernandes and the team sort of growing together. But Enzo Fernandes is a player that the manager knows. Is he someone that or is that part of the reason why he's been able to have that that instant kind of settling into life at Manchester City? because he knows Maresca and Maresca knows him.

5:19Yeah, for sure. I think the fact that Maresca wants to try and bring him from Chelsea and possibly one or two others, I think it did mean a lot because firstly, you can see Enzo Fernandes really trusts the coach and the coach really trusts the player. And it's a high-quality player, like a real high-level player, something who's been one of the best players for Chelsea across these last few years. So when he comes in, you've got tons of players around Enzo Fernandes who don't necessarily know what the manager's like in certain moments and situations throughout the season, but Enzo Fernandes does.

5:49He knows exactly what the training is going to be like. He knows exactly how he wants his team to play, all the little details. Let's say some of the City players are starting to pick up on a day-to-day basis through the training and the in-game repetitions. Fernandes knows those. So when he goes out onto the pitch, I think he's the one that's got the clear vision for what the manager wants. Obviously, he has to create this with the team around him, but it's a great signing to have when you know that they can fit in with their ability anyway, but their understanding of what the coach wants takes them to another level.

6:15And just delaying, Pat, by another couple of minutes, this talk about the defenders, let's talk about the player of the match in a bit more detail. Erling Haaland now with more Champions League goals than Thomas Muller. He's seventh in the all-time top goal-scoring charts. He's got a long career, we expect, ahead of him as well. And as you said, he's unstoppable. Nights like this are made for him. Yeah, I mean, the two goals he scored were very, very good goals. He was unlucky that they made two brilliant saves from him as well. I thought his hold-up play was pretty spectacular on some occasions tonight.

6:49That's maybe one of the questions that's been asked about him. But he's been asked about various questions over the years. Oh, you're not that good in the air. Starts scoring goals in the air. You know, your hold-up play isn't as good. He starts holding it up, little flex off tonight, finding players who pull. At the end of the game, he was getting the ball, dropping it in an area, picking it up and then flying it out left to enjoy. and then he turned and went from about the semicircle, the circular halfway line, and he started running towards the box to try and get on the end of a cross. And honestly, it was so, so silly the way they were trying to tackle him.

7:26As I said, they were hanging off him like flags. They couldn't get near him. He was so powerful. He was so quick. He just looked like a different type of species. It really was. And it was fabulous to see someone like that. and I thought his attitude tonight was perfect from start to finish so yeah he is special he is if he stays fit that's it it's nothing else it's just if he stays fit if he stays fit he will break records like you wouldn't believe because no a really good player and I loved his attitude tonight that he didn't just take it easy when the game was won he kept on showing the passion and he kept on because he wanted that hat trick he clearly wanted that hat trick so no It's lovely to see it tonight.

8:07And there was a moment I couldn't quite work it out and it wouldn't have come across so obviously. And I think Daniel's seen it as well, but we couldn't quite figure it out. They were gutted here when he scored his second goal and he turned away and it was really quiet. Then there was this lovely ripple of applause. And it's this unusual ripple you get around sometimes that you're thinking, that's just respect coming from the supporters of another team. It's really rare you see it in football, but I think that's exactly what it was from a very very large number of this crowd It's interesting that you say about him if he stays fit because on his YouTube channel ahead of this game he was talking about that he fears because he's had no pre-season he only returned to training in mid-August after the World Cup he missed the tour of the Far East with Manchester City pre-season and he said that eventually he'll get his fitness as he continues to play the games but he's worried about whether he's sharp mentally in the early stages of the season.

9:06Don't tell that, Porto. He's scored five goals now in his last three games. Unfortunately, we've run out of time. Yeah, who would have thought it? No, I'm only joking. I'm joking, I'm joking. Talk to me about Ruben Diaz and Mark Gahey and that partnership, how that's developing and how solid and organised it looks. Yeah, it's very, very solid, very organised. They're always prepared to take the ball, but I love how aggressive they are with their 1v1 defending because there are lots of times when, you know, they're on the halfway line, isolated with a striker, and everybody's coming towards them, and they have to be able to slow the game down.

9:39I think they did that very, very well throughout this game. And, you know, obviously I want to talk about defenders, but I need to talk about Haaland as well because the points that the guys were making, something that's really impressive, I think, about Elling Haaland is his patience because as the game was starting, he didn't have a ton of touches, but it all serves a purpose. In some ways, it's a selfless striker because he's in a position for the way that Porto defend against him, as I'm sure the guys saw, where there were frequently two players right next to him, touch tight, trying to sort of like unsettle him, push him around and so on.

10:11But given the fact that football is essentially a numbers game, that means that there's somebody else on the pitch for City who is free. So he's standing there and he's sort of occupying those players to allow other people to have a level of creativity in a game, which wouldn't be there. If he got bored and said, I just need a touch, let me go and wander. and I think as a consequence he ends up having tons of chances created for him because as I say he's doing the job which you know for the way that narrative works if he doesn't touch for 10 minutes it's like oh he's not touched in 10 minutes but his impact is probably bigger than somebody who would drop off and take 10 touches and do nothing with it so yeah credit to Haaland and yeah to those two centre-halves for City I thought they were excellent and even seeing Mark Gehi on the right-hand side like we very much used to see him on the left I thought that worked as well so yeah it's good to see the manager and Maresca, he's got two centre-halves who are playing with that edge because they'll need it should they want to be successful in this competition.

11:01Let's hear from the City boss Enzo Maresca. It's game by game. I said before the game to the players and also yesterday. It's a different competition, different stadium, different environment. But the most important thing is that we show who we are in this moment. We try to be, again, aggressive off the ball, on the ball, try to plan the game in the way we can win the game. And then in terms of where we are, or it's a quick process or not, I don't know again. I have to tell you again the same thing, that for me the most important thing is I can see game after game that the team is improving. And this is the most important thing.

11:43That was Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca speaking after his side's 2-0 win at Porto in the Champions League. You're listening to the Football Daily Podcast.

12:00The EFL has a brand new home. Hello and welcome to 72 Plus, the home of the EFL from Five Live Sports. Aaron Paul and Joby McAnuff tackle the biggest stories from across the championship, League One, League Two and beyond. A minimum of one week's wage is fine. And we may be even right to your wife and tell you what you've been fined if you carry on. And the biggest talking points from across the Football League. Well, we spoke well at Adobe and enjoyed working with him. It's my show too now, but yeah, thanks for that. Sorry, Aaron, there you go. Search 72 Plus, the EFL podcast on BBC Sounds. This is the Football Daily Podcast with Kelly Kitts.

12:38Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, got a win on his first Champions League game back at Real Madrid. They beat Inter Milan 2-1. And Chris Coles was watching what really, Chris, was a pretty strange game in terms of the patterns of play and the scoreline. It was a very strange game, Kelly. Not only did Real Madrid play in a manner that really upset their fans, they were leading 2-0 but were being jeered and whistled and booed by the Madridsters, who were very unhappy with the way their team were playing. And you can understand why. They were leading 2-0, two mistakes that led to their goals. one from goalkeeper Martinez Valverde with a decent finish to rob him and the first from Mbappe, a good finish after Jones and Bissek had got in a muddle.

13:21But Inter were throwing players forward. Courtois made several excellent saves. Without him, Inter could easily have won this game. So you can understand why the Real Madrid fans were unhappy. And as far as Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho go from here, it's very difficult to get a steer as to how competitive they'll be in the Champions League this season because it was, as you say, a very strange evening given Inter Milan's dominance. Even for Inter Milan to get the win and to take all three points in this game, even then, did the 2-1 scoreline flatter Madrid a little bit? It absolutely did, yeah.

13:58It was difficult when you're looking at the game and when you're watching it and you're looking at all the stats to look at the stats and think this is a team that are leading by two goals to one. They clearly have stark talent and when they played on the counter, attack they were excellent Mbappe, Bellingham had good chances, Brahim Diaz missed a presentable opportunity, Vinicius Junior so with those star players they will always carry a threat but they will when you look at the teams in front of them in the Champions League PSG and Arsenal spring to mind they bring control and star quality with Real there was no real control there so I fancy if they are to make a fist of the Champions League this season then Jose Mourinho will have to work his magic in getting Real to control games a lot better because better opposition than Inter will absolutely punish them based on tonight's performance chris thank you very much for that and inter could as chris was saying have had a lot more if they'd just been sharper in front of gold nadam yeah and tell me your story you've heard before about a team going to the burn of a or not coming away with anything even though they feel they've played better you know there've been so many teams have done that across the years and it's it's tricky to sort of manage this time of the season because as we see things like this is who teams are right now not necessarily who they're going to be you know we can go back say two seasons for example and see that psg was scraping into the playoff round of the champions league when the new format was first created but then they finished the tournament as the champions and deserved winners as well so all these flaws and issues that they have teams who've had players go away for the for the world cup in the summer when's pre-season started all these things all the jostling the first few games of champions league sort of like mattering but not being definitive it doesn't have that sort of sense of jeopardy just yet but I think from a stylistic standpoint for Real Madrid given the fact they'd lost on the weekend and they could have lost this game today it could have been a concern because the Madridistas they do have high standards and as we've all seen in our lifestands anyone who's watched Spanish football those white handkerchiefs can come out very very quickly in any context yeah yeah absolutely but you're absolutely right to point out that so many times, particularly teams from different leagues, can kind of build into their season, whereas in the Premier League, you've got to be ready on day one, ready to go and fit and prepared.

16:09And that's why we see so many times the English teams doing so well, particularly in the early stages of this new format of the Champions League. Aston Villa, one of them, they've got their first win of the season. 3-2 victory away at Club Bruges in the early kickoff. Here's the Villa boss, Unai Emery. I am so, so happy today. So, so happy, thankful. because we know how we are in the way, how the responsibility we have, and I have. But the players as well, they have their responsibility. And the old players, they need to keep our standard high, to show everybody this is the only way we can achieve the process in our objectives, our targets.

16:59Of course, we are improving, improving after Brighton, after Arsenal, after Hull City. And today, another step forward. Collectively, tactically, in our structure, individually, and this victory is through it. Of course, we must work hard. It's the only way. And this is the process we must try to set strong. And today we did one very important step forward.

17:57That really does work on the confidence of players. We were talking tonight about Phil Foden, who in previous seasons with the chances he had tonight probably would have had a hat trick himself. But when the confidence is flowing and you are scoring goals, it's just kind of easy. You pass it in and don't think about it. But for a team that can happen, the fact that they hadn't scored a goal so far this season, there are so many changes and so many important, you know, more than important, totally and utterly vital players had left the club, it was always going to have a huge effect. So they needed something to lift them very, very quickly.

18:34So I don't think you can underestimate the importance, not just for the Champions League, but for their entire season, this win is tonight, and particularly to get three goals. And it does help if you're a striker, and Nicholas Jackson scores as well. So well done Villa. I do always hope the very, very best for them, because I think the attitude's great, the manager's brilliant, with what he does. He doesn't seem to complain too much, even when it's all ripped out underneath him for, I would suspect, financial reasons. But I still think, in reality, it's going to be a tough season for Villa fans.

19:06It could be a tough season. It was John McGinn who got things underway for them with the opening goal. So a familiar face there. And then, as you say, a new one in Nicholas Jackson with the goal on 43 minutes. Look, Unai Emery, Nadam, has said that he needs Villa fans to be patient, or people need to be patient with this Aston Villa side as they kind of get their way into the season. They didn't start last season, actually, particularly well either. So maybe, maybe that patience would be justified. It's just helped a lot by getting a win and getting some goals, as Pat said. Yeah, 100%. I think at the start of last season, they went four games without scoring, two losses, two draws.

19:47But, Kelly, again, like we said about the start of the season, they finished fourth. they won the Europa League so the start it kind of can get things moving but it doesn't necessarily have to define you as such I think for Uno Amri being as experienced as he is understanding the changes within the squad with some of the key players no longer being there and some people new people having to bed into the system the belief and the ideas that he has and the understanding of representing Aston Villa I think he understands he's wise in what he says and he's got so much good faith with the with the Villa fans that I'm sure they'll want to listen to that.

20:23I think as long as they're seeing signs of progress, seeing players start to understand to Joe, then, yeah, it's going to be, I think it'll end up being a positive season. It might not necessarily have the highs of last season as such, but they'll be very, very competitive. And I think going away in Europe and getting three points to start the thing off, what more could you ask for, really? Ahead of Liverpool's Champions League opener against Atletico Madrid tomorrow night, Alexis McAllister said he's sad not to have been offered a new contract in the summer and that he had options to leave the club.

20:53He was speaking at the pre-match press conference. I received the news that the club was not in a position to offer me a new contract, which, of course, makes me very, very sad because I think everyone can see that I give my 100 % for this football club every single day in training, games. Of course, I can have very good games, bad games like everyone, but I always give my best. And of course, for example, I see Dominic and Ryan renewing his all-day contracts, and that makes me very happy because they deserve it. But at the same time, it makes me a little bit sad that I didn't get mine. But of course, there is still time.

21:38I think the fans don't need to worry because I will give my 100 % until the last day I'm here. so we will see what happens but there was options to leave this summer and I think right now I'm in the right club and I have the right mindset to get my 100 % for this club. That was Alexis McAllister and the reason he says he's got time is because his contract runs until the summer of 2028 and Donny Erola, the Liverpool boss, said this. At the end of situations, we all have personal situations and we have different contracts with the club and in this case for me the important thing is that he wants to be here, he wants to continue here.

22:20In the footballing side, we haven't been together a lot of time, but you more or less can perceive, because he has been important and has played a lot of minutes, that I rate him very highly and definitely there is still a lot of time to talk about those contract situations. Pat, when a player talks as publicly about their contract situation as Alexis McAllister has done in this news conference, does that mean that they're trying to force somebody's hands or flush an offer out from somewhere? You know, I often hear various players saying things and they're pushing it a certain way and you get a bit fed up and you're thinking, oh, whinge and whine somewhere else, mate, you're doing OK.

23:09not this time I thought he spoke brilliant I thought he said exactly the right things that he loves the club that I mean any fan listening to that is thinking he just wants to play for Liverpool Football Club he's just shown us that that's the case and if you answer ask the question you answer it honestly that he would love I mean and he's seen his mates getting these contracts that must be disappointing but he said all the correct things I think nothing away from that I applaud him for all that and yeah Vince Cancés didn't it look as if Corey Gagpo was going to leave very recently and then suddenly he's back in you know Pat I think the I think the pattern in this one though is that this if we get to the end of this season this looks like being another contract that is is running down for for Liverpool where they've got a player with it with a year to go who potentially could could come to the end of their term there and the club don't get money for them and we saw that quite a lot last season and I just see last season and the season before and I wonder if that's what what is concerning about the McAllister situation yeah of course it means it's a financial thing you make to make that decision as well if he is asking far far far too much and you know that's the pressure he's putting on it he's playing a very good game then because to speak the way he was speaking there didn't sound like it sounded like somebody who's just one a contract offered remember he wasn't offered a contract so you can offer you a contract and give you no big rise or anything like that so at the moment if he's by the way he doesn't need a pr man he's doing a great job himself so don't worry about that it's one of those things it'll be interesting to see how it goes do you know what happens there are some players that do they play at the end of the contract or to a last year that goes and then they get a lot of money to go to another club because it's you know a cut down price well liverpool know the deal you know that's the story they have to accept it laden what do you make of that the fact that after van dyke trent alexander arnold famously mohammed salah coming to the end of his contract the fact that does does this seem to be a a pattern that's happening at the moment i think so yeah because we could also mention canate uh there's andy robertson possibly possibly a couple others and Salah?

25:24Yeah, Salah as well. I think Kelly mentioned Salah. But in some ways, it feels, especially when it was the Alexander-Arnold one, and so on, I thought it felt a bit incompetent. It really did feel that way for a club of that size to not have tied down their key talent to where as the season's progressing, people don't know whether these players are coming or going. It felt so, so late. But then I think with MacArthur saying the club said to him that they were not in a position to offer those contracts. Maybe there were other things that were on the minds of the club that needed to be sorted at that time.

25:56But in some ways, you expect a club of that stature, a club that's recently won the Premier League, has been in Champions League finals and so on in the not-so-distant past, you'd think it would run better instead of these plays leaving in the manner that they have done in these last few years. I'm with you, Pat, that I thought you spoke brilliantly there, but so brilliantly that because of the way the last few years have been, I'm not to speak on behalf of Liverpool fans, but if I was a Liverpool fan, I'd be asking more questions about the club than I would about the player who feels that they should have a new deal, which feels like the exact opposite of the way that we'd normally see these situations.

26:30So, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what they do. And it didn't even cross my mind that, say, Sabah's had a new deal, Gravenberch has had a new deal. But that was the midfield three that helped them win the title. So why is he different to the other two? And they're basically saying to him that, you know, you don't matter because if that's what you say to a player that's so important to you, then it's not really good vibes that the club is up. You can listen to full commentary of Liverpool against Atletico Madrid here on Five Live. It's an eight o 'clock kickoff tomorrow night. Last season's Champions League finalists, Arsenal begin their campaign in Italy against Napoli tomorrow.

27:03It's been a disrupted build-up to the game for the Gunners because Mikel Arteta had to cancel his pre-match press conference. There was a flight today. There's air traffic control issues in the UK. It's not been an ideal build-up, but you'd expect that Arsenal, Pat, would be relatively unflustered by Mikel Arteta not being able to do his pre-match press conference. Yeah, I think doing a pre-match press conference is not the thing you look forward to most. Arsenal will be fine, it's just a little blip. Be calm. That's it from the Football Daily. Manchester City and Aston Villa both kicked off their Champions League campaign with wins.

27:39The next podcast will reflect on Liverpool and Arsenal's opening games, so make sure you subscribe on the BBC Sounds app. For now, though, thanks for listening and bye-bye.