What we learned from Thursday's Champions League matches

Following victories for Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, as well as Chelsea's defeat to Bayern Munich, Alex Keble analyses the mixed fortunes of Manchester City and Newcastle United, who began their campaigns on Thursday night.

Foden, Haaland, and Doku are once again behind a comfortable City win

Man City 2-0 Napoli 

After a shaky start to the 2025/26 season Pep Guardiola will be delighted by how the last few days have gone. 

A relatively straightforward 2-0 victory over Napoli at the Etihad Stadium follows the 3-0 dismantling of Manchester United five days earlier. There were notable similarities between two performances that appear to signal Man City are returning to their old selves: calm, controlling - and devastating. 

On this occasion they were helped by a first-half red card for Napoli’s Giovanni Di Lorenzo, which turned an even game into more or less attack versus defence. It was only a matter of time before City got the breakthrough. 

But the source of the City goals is instructive, because for the second game running Man City were led by the razor-sharp form of Erling Haaland, the creativity of Phil Foden, and the explosive dribbling of Jeremy Doku. 

Haaland’s 56th-minute opener - his 50th in the Champions League in just 49 matches, making him by a distance the fastest player ever to reach that milestone – was exquisite. 

Fastest players to 50 Champions League goals

Napoli’s low block was finally beaten by a majestic scoop pass from Foden that found the run of Haaland, whose looping header over the goalkeeper required a power, accuracy, and quick thinking few players in the world are capable of. 

Kevin De Bruyne, quiet tonight in front of an appreciative Man City crowd and taken off in the first half after Di Lorenzo's red card, would have been proud of the assist. Fittingly, Foden created the most chances by a Man City player in a Champions League match, with eight, since De Bruyne produced nine against Real Madrid in August 2020. 

The baton has been passed. 

Man City’s second goal was even better, because when Doku picked up the ball on the edge of the box there was seemingly no danger to the compact Napoli defence. 

But Doku turned sharply to take out a pair of defenders then shimmied through another couple before calming sliding the ball into the far corner. It is no exaggeration to say it was a goal reminiscent of Lionel Messi in his prime. 

Doku had assisted twice in the derby. Haaland, whose run in behind forced the early red card this evening, was lethal in that game, too, while Foden’s career was potentially revitalised in a central role against Man Utd. 

In other words, as Guardiola tries to put together a brand new team with a new tactical approach, it looks as if he now has the building blocks in place. 

Doku, Foden and Haaland will be looking forward to the trip to Arsenal on Sunday. 

Rashford silences St James' Park but Newcastle show they belong 

Newcastle United 1-2 Barcelona 

They didn’t get the result they wanted. But the Newcastle fans leaving St James' Park with vocal cords shredded after a breathless and entertaining defeat to Barcelona will be buzzing at the thought of at least three more nights like this one.  

We say “at least” because, on this evidence, Newcastle will be competitive. The only difference between the Magpies and the Spanish champions tonight was Marcus Rashford. 

After tonight Rashford can be added to the list of players who have left Man Utd – albeit only on loan in this case – and flourished elsewhere. 

Rashford was sensational in front of the watching England head coach Thomas Tuchel, scoring his first two goals in a Barcelona shirt and his first Champions League goals since 2021.  

The first in the 58th minute was a well-taken header. The second, in the 67th minute, was ridiculous, a swerving thunderbolt off the right boot that flew in off the crossbar from 25 yards out, stunning a raucous crowd into silence. 

Anthony Gordon’s tap-in with 90 minutes on the clock set up a furious finish but proved to be a mere consolation. 

It might have been so much more.  

For the first 30 minutes, and the first 10 after half-time, Newcastle swarmed and unsettled the visitors, a hard press and the advantage of a wall of noise behind them allowing Anthony Elanga to charge down the right again and again. 

With Gordon and Harvey Barnes also making runs in behind - hovering on the offside line, shoulders arched, waiting like wolves for the signal to pounce – it was clear Eddie Howe had planned to pierce Barca’s infamous high line. 

They did it several times, only to fluff the final ball or the finish.  

“I think we were really in the game, and were never really out of it,” Howe told TNT Sports. “I’m disappointed we didn’t score the first goal of the game. 

“We had the chances to do that in the first half. But it was a real wholehearted, gutsy display.” 

Watch: Howe's reaction after Barcelona defeat

Put another way, in the end it was energy – not talent, not tactics – that did it for Newcastle. As they inevitably tired, Barcelona began to seize control and Rashford scored his brace. 

Howe went on to say the night was not “magical” because his team did not win, and it’s true this could not match the 4-1 victory over Paris Saint-Germain on Newcastle’s return to the Champions League two years ago. 

But casting their minds back supporters will recall that, being in the group of death, beating PSG still left them with a nagging worry about the task ahead. It was one they could not complete. 

Despite the defeat, the new format gives them a much better chance of progressing this time. 

Not the same high, then, but greater optimism for what lies ahead. 

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