PORTO: Erling Haaland scored twice as Manchester City opened their Champions League campaign with a 2-0 win over Porto earlier this morning.

Haaland had three attempts denied by Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa in the first half, but the Norwegian striker was finally unstoppable early in the second half when his header hit the bottom corner.

Porto continued to apply pressure and forced the English giants to defend throughout the second half, but a lack of finishing quality meant they failed to punish Manchester City, who made a few simple mistakes.

Haaland then showed the difference in class between the two teams when he calmly finished off a chance in injury time to score his 167th goal for City, becoming the club’s third-highest goalscorer of all time.

“We know the pressure is on to deliver on the biggest stage, and that’s what we did today.

“These are games you have to win and we started the season well.

“In the Champions League, you have to win games because otherwise the pressure comes immediately and then you don’t know what will happen,” Haaland told Amazon Prime.

Backed by a record spending of 460 million pounds on new players, Maresca has made a positive start to his job in the big challenge of replacing Pep Guardiola in the City hot seat.

However, Haaland remains City’s mainstay and shows no signs of fatigue after his brilliant success with Norway at the World Cup, having scored five goals in the first four games of the new season.

Maresca also included Ayyoub Bouaddi in the starting line-up for the first time since the player joined City from Lille for a fee of 100 million euros.

Interestingly, the Moroccan-born teenage midfielder only became the third most expensive midfielder signed by City in the transfer window after Enzo Fernandez and Elliott Anderson each exceeded the value of 100 million pounds.

PARIS: Luis Enrique’s Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) have cemented their status as one of the greatest teams in the history of the Champions League after lifting the trophy two years in a row, and now they are eyeing a rare hat-trick of titles.

“Completing the hat-trick is our objective, but we know it will be very difficult and many obstacles will await us,” said PSG captain Marquinhos ahead of this season’s campaign.

After years of disappointment on the European stage, the Qatari-owned club began to show its true fangs after former Barcelona and Spain manager Enrique was appointed in 2023.

They reached the semi-finals in his first season before improving their form after Kylian Mbappe left the club in 2024.

No longer relying on one or two star players, PSG then dominated Europe on their way to lifting their first Champions League trophy in 2025, after thrashing Inter Milan 5-0 in the final.

They then defended the championship by defeating English Premier League (EPL) champions Arsenal on penalties in last season’s final in Budapest, thus becoming the second team to successfully defend the trophy since the modern era of the Champions League was introduced in 1992.

However, chasing three consecutive championships on the prestigious stage is certainly an achievement on a much different level.

Real Madrid did it under Zinedine Zidane when they dominated Europe from 2016 to 2018.

Ajax, managed by Johan Cruyff, and Bayern Munich, led by Franz Beckenbauer, each won three European Cups in a row in the 1970s, while Real Madrid, under Alfredo Di Stefano, recorded five consecutive titles in the early history of the competition from 1956 to 1960.

That’s the elite group that PSG wants to join, but the challenge in Europe’s most prestigious club competition is now greater than ever.

The new Champions League format has seen PSG play 17 matches to lift the trophy in each of the last two campaigns.

MANCHESTER: Erling Haaland ensured Manchester City continued their perfect start to the Premier League after beating newly promoted Coventry 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium last night.

Haaland’s header midway through the first half separated the two sides, allowing City to claim their third consecutive win of the season.

However, the era of new manager Enzo Maresca has yet to be truly convincing as City had to hold on at the end of the game to keep the three points.

Maresca managed to land Enzo Fernandez and Iliman Ndiaye after City completed a record spending of 460 million pounds in the transfer market to renew the squad after a decade under Pep Guardiola.

“Nine times out of 10 in a game like this, you’re going to concede at the end of the game.

“But the way we fought together until the end, defending against throw-ins and dead-ball situations, was good.

“Not all victories will come in pretty ways,” Maresca said.

Fernandez, who joined City from Chelsea for a Premier League-record fee of 125 million pounds, was expected to start on the bench before Nico O’Reilly’s injury during the warm-up forced him into the starting line-up.

Ndiaye, meanwhile, made his debut for City and teamed up with Haaland, Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Cherki in a high-profile attack.

Coventry almost opened the scoring early after a mistake by City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who failed to control a back pass before clearing the ball over the goal line.

Taiwo Awoniyi and Jack Rudoni also wasted the visitors’ best chances before City began to dominate the game.

Cherki’s attempt then hit the post before Fernandez played a role in the winning goal when his pass to Semenyo produced a cross that was finished by Haaland.

City failed to add to their tally after that and had to rely on two saves from Donnarumma to deny attempts from Loum Tchaouna and Ellis Simms.

Despite the defeat, Coventry manager Frank Lampard remains positive about his team’s ability to compete after returning to the top flight after more than two decades.

“What we can’t do is lose confidence. We need to take confidence from today’s match and look ahead because we have two very difficult matches ahead of us.

“Today we can leave the match with pride,” said the former England midfielder.

LONDON: Paul Scholes believes Chelsea have “destroyed” their chances of challenging for the Premier League title after selling Enzo Fernandez to Manchester City.

Man City completed a sensational £125 million move for Fernandez on the final day of the transfer window, making the Argentine one of the most expensive players in Premier League history.

Fernandez has been one of the most influential players at Stamford Bridge since joining Chelsea from Benfica for £107 million in 2023, but he made it clear at the start of the summer that he wanted to leave the club.

City failed to meet Chelsea’s deadline to sign Fernandez for 120 million pounds last month, but continued negotiations with the Blues before finally reaching an agreement just hours before the transfer window closed.

Fernandez was previously interested in securing a dream move to Real Madrid during the World Cup, but also agreed to join City to play under former Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca.

The 25-year-old was not listed in Chelsea’s first two Premier League matches this season and has the opportunity to make his debut for City against Coventry City this Saturday.

Scholes, considered one of the best midfielders of his generation, said he was “not a big fan” of Fernandez when he first arrived in England, but now considers him a “great player” and a big loss for Chelsea.

Xabi Alonso’s team were previously considered among the favourites to challenge for the Premier League title, but Scholes does not see Chelsea as capable of challenging defending champions Arsenal, who they will face this weekend without Fernandez.

“I don’t think he’s unhappy at Chelsea but his mind has been influenced by Manchester City.

“But if Chelsea want to win the Premier League, which I don’t think they can do, they can’t let go of Enzo Fernandez.

“They used Malo Gusto in midfield the other day, that wasn’t good enough. Reece James also started in midfield and that wasn’t good enough either.

“I wasn’t a big fan of Enzo when he first arrived but over time I’ve grown to like him and now I think he’s a great player.

“He would be great for Manchester City but Chelsea shouldn’t let this happen because City are their direct rivals.

“City have ‘taken advantage’ of Chelsea with the manager, they have clearly destabilised him and are talking to him about a transfer in the summer.

“That really ruined Chelsea’s season because at that time they were in their best form and playing really well.

“If Enzo Fernandez joins Manchester City, he could potentially ruin Chelsea’s season once again,” the Manchester United legend and former England midfielder said on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast.

After moving to the Etihad Stadium in a £125 million transfer, Fernandez said: “Manchester City are the most successful club in England in recent times.

“Every player wants to be part of a club like this because everyone knows how well City is managed.

“I couldn’t be happier to be here and I’m ready for the challenge of helping City continue to win trophies. This club is built to achieve success.”

LONDON: Xabi Alonso has warned Chelsea will do “whatever it takes” to win and insists his team will be different when they face defending champions Arsenal in the Premier League next Sunday.

The Blues continued their perfect start under the Spaniard after recording a 4-3 victory over Brighton at Stamford Bridge.

The hosts scored three goals in 32 minutes through Romeo Lavia, Pedro Neto and Joao Pedro, but like last week’s win over Fulham, they allowed their opponents to fight back.

Malick Yalcouye’s strike and Joao Pedro’s own goal either side of half-time helped Brighton close the gap before Cole Palmer’s superb strike secured Chelsea a narrow victory.

Three wins from three matches is a great start for Alonso, but his team is still far from perfect as they only had 26 percent possession and were often conceded by Brighton’s attacking moves led by Fabian Hurzeler.

Chelsea face a big test when they travel to the Emirates against Arsenal next week, but Alonso is confident his team can improve and rise to the challenge.

“I want to win and I will do whatever it takes to win.

“Every match can be different, so we need to prepare as best we can.

“We need to train to face the best situations and be prepared for whatever scenario may happen. So, it doesn’t mean that this performance will be repeated against Arsenal.

“Today was a big challenge and a big test, as was next Sunday, but we can continue to improve the things we did well and fix the other things we could still do better,” Alonso said at a post-match news conference.

Alonso also rejected the notion that his team was complacent after taking the lead, instead considering it normal for a team that is still in the process of building consistency.

“No, I would say it’s pretty normal.

“It happens to a lot of teams, including other teams that have worked together for a long time and have played more games together.

“Usually, the understanding of how to manage such moments is better. We are still in the process.

“So I’m confident in the future we can manage it better because in the Premier League, even though at half-time we were leading 3-1, I’ve said to the players, ‘2-0 lead, even though two goals in the Premier League, the game is not over’.

“We need to stay focused on playing, scoring goals and defending well. After that we could actually score the fifth goal and a lot of things happened in the match,” he said.

Regarding Chelsea’s low ball possession against Brighton, Alonso said the statistics need to be seen in the context of the match.

“No, you need to look at the context of each data.

“After 30 minutes we had scored a goal to make it 3-0 and maybe at that time we played too much to maintain the result instead of continuing to play as usual.

“So the data is not important. What’s important is how you play and what we can do better.”

“But the approach never changes. I’m not saying today we need to have 60 percent or 20 percent of the ball.

“I never talked about that. It’s about preparation, how to be more competitive,” he added.

Chelsea are currently third in the league, but could be overtaken by Arsenal if Mikel Arteta’s squad beats Aston Villa tonight.