Man City 2-1 Dortmund: Haaland’s incredible “kungfu” volley sealed Man City a late victory over Dortmund

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Line-ups:

Man City: Ederson, Stones, Akanji, Ake, Cancelo, Rodri, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Grealish, Haaland
Dortmund: Meyer, Meunier, Hummels, Sule, Guerreiro, Can, Ozcan, Bellingham, Reus, Reyna, Modeste

Manchester City 2-1 Dortmund:

Dortmund manager stated before the match that he had known exactly what to expect from Erling Haaland, who had had two and a half prolific years at Signal Iduna Park, scoring incredible 86 goals in 89 appearances, and had found ways to prevent him. These statements were not exacerbated as the prolific striker was “locked” by Dortmund’s experienced center-back duo of Mats Hummel and Niklas Sule. Actually, both the teams had a disciplined half-time, and none of them wanted to take any risks. The goalless first-half exactly reflected that with Man City’s four off target shots and Dortmund’s one shot on target.

However, the second-half was a different story when both teams rose their squads to find an opener. However, it was Dortmund who had a better start after the interval, as they successfully put constant pressure on the Citizens’ defenders. Marco Reus almost broke the deadlock seven minutes after the break after his dummy shot pasted defender Akanji, but his effort after that put the ball inches wide of the far post.

But the combination between Marco Reus and Bellingham, in which the German attacking midfielder’s volley towards goal was set for the 19-year-old English star to head home, gave Dortmund a 1-0 lead.

Guardiola went to the bench soon after, bringing in Julian Alvarez, Phil Foden, and Bernardo Silva in need of inspiration. These substitutes immediately boosted Man City’s attacking quality. But the stubborn resistance of Dortmund’s defense foiled Haaland and the other city’s stars from equalizing.

However, this season has witnessed a more resilient Manchester City as they have made some thrilling comebacks in the Premier League, and they bring that quality to the Champions League this season. The first savior was defender John Stones, who did an unusual thing, marking his 201 appearances for the Citizens. Receiving a ball from Kevin De Bruyne outside the box, the English defender decided to produce a rocket from over 20 yards, putting the ball into the near top corner of Meyer’s goal.

And the moment that Man City and Haaland had longed for finally came. Manchester City’ dramatic late turnaround was completed when Haaland continued his flying start this season with an acrobatic volley after Cancelo’s beautiful “trivela” cross.

                                                                     Haaland's acrobatic volley sealed Manchester City's thrilling comeback over Dortmund.

This comeback leaves City top of group G with 6 points, while Dortmund had 3 points and was ranked second.