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The hosts looked a bit nervous in the first half, but improved after the break when a free kick by Ilkay Gundogan and a fine goal by Ferran Torres followed Sergio Agüero’s early penalty to seal City’s victory.
Here are five things we learned from the game:
Both teams struggled to establish themselves in Manchester, with Luis Díaz rushing for City to score the first goal in the 14th minute, only to see his team shoot a penalty through Pepe about five minutes later.
Moments after that, a bit of carelessness from Ederson on City’s goal almost gave the visitors a chance to take the lead again.
Overall, both teams were struggling to hold on to the ball, with neither team making a foothold in the game until the middle of the second half, when City began to look more comfortable after Ilkay Gundogan’s goal.
One of the reasons for the nervousness of both sides was due to the refereeing of Andris Treimanis.
The Latvian was quick to manage reserves in the first half, and that made a somewhat less strong City side even more nervous than they were already against a motivated Porto.
The difference in refereeing approaches between the Premier League and the Champions League has been notable for some time and, problematic, does not appear to be any closer to being resolved.
Worse than that, however, was the in-game inconsistency on Wednesday, as Treimanis did not treat similar incidents equally throughout the night.
Walker days might be numbered
Kyle Walker has endured a difficult couple of months. About six weeks ago, the right-back was sent off by England and nearly cost his team a victory against Iceland in the Nations League.
Walker was visibly excited when discussing the incident after the final whistle, fearing that the unnecessary and reckless challenge that resulted in his red card could have ended his career in England. However, the 30-year-old has not learned from that experience or does not have the ability to get his game in order.
An equally reckless and unnecessary tackle around the half-hour mark Wednesday night saw Walker enter the book, putting his team in front of a hungry Porto with much of the game still to be played. Cautions for Bernardo Silva and Joao Cancelo soon followed, but they were more unfortunate as a result of overly eager refereeing.
Walker somehow managed to redeem himself with a strong clearance from the goal line later in the first half, but still feels like he often relies on his pace to get out of less than ideal situations and convince his coaches to stick with it. him for a while. more time.
Gundogan steps forward in De Bruyne’s absence
Kevin De Bruyne, who was injured while on international duty earlier this month, injects an imagination and confidence into City that was sometimes notably lacking on Wednesday.
On many occasions, when playing from behind, the hosts seemed unsure of how to defeat Porto, and were almost afraid to try.
Fortunately for Pep Guardiola, Gundogan was able to influence the game more as he progressed, and the German international even scored with a beautiful free kick to give City the lead for the first time in the second half.
In de Bruyne’s absence, it was vital that Gundogan took over, and ultimately he did.
Chelsea fans get a preview of Sarr
Chelsea signed center-back Malang Sarr from Nice this summer but immediately loaned him out to Porto for the season.
But the 21-year-old tried out Premier League rivals early Wednesday night when he faced Guardiola’s side as part of Porto’s three defenders.
The French Under-21 international was flanked by veteran Pepe and former Newcastle defender Chancel Mbemba, and had the opportunity to prove himself against a powerful three-way forward of Agüero, Sterling and Mahrez.
Sarr struggled to particularly impress, but many defenders would in such a situation, and he has plenty of time to develop.
