Phil Foden scored a hat-trick and made another as Manchester City thrashed AEK Athens 5-1 at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night. Elliot Anderson opened the scoring with his first goal for the club and Rayan Cherki was also on target, as Enzo Maresca's much-changed side — led up front by 17-year-old Floyd Samba — swept aside the Greek champions to move on to six Champions League points.
Anderson off the mark, Foden takes over
City's night began with a piece of history for their £116m summer signing. On 12 minutes Enzo Fernández clipped a free-kick onto the crossbar and Anderson followed in to score his first goal in blue, a moment Sports Mole captured as Anderson opened his City account. Samba, handed a Champions League debut at 17 with Erling Haaland rested, had won the free-kick by barging through midfield — exactly the story of the team news that had Samba starting and Haaland benched.
Foden doubled the lead on 34 minutes, Rico Lewis feeding him down the right to fire into the roof of the net off his weaker foot. AEK briefly threatened a shock when substitute Zini set up Stavros Pilios to make it 2-1 seven minutes after half-time, but the resistance lasted five minutes. Foden turned provider for Cherki to restore the two-goal cushion on 57 minutes, and the rout was on.
Hat-trick sealed in eleven second-half minutes
Lewis teed up Foden again on 65 minutes for 4-1, and the England forward completed his hat-trick on 76 minutes, finishing from five yards after Lewis released Ryan McAidoo, as The Times' live blog described the third. Foden finished with three goals and an assist, Lewis with two assists, and City with a 5-1 win that flattered nobody who watched it. Joško Gvardiol's yellow card was the only booking of a one-sided night.
All of it was achieved without the rested Haaland and with Antoine Semenyo beginning an eight-week absence — the context set out in the Semenyo injury blow confirmed before this game. Maresca rotated, trusted a teenager up front, and still watched his side score five.
For AEK, the evening was damage limitation long before the end. The Greek champions actually carried a threat on the break in the first half, forcing Gianluigi Donnarumma into two saves, and Pilios's goal was a reminder of their quality in transition. But they could not live with City's rotations out wide, and their goal difference — so important in this format — took a heavy hit. Samba, meanwhile, left the pitch to a standing ovation on 62 minutes: no goal on debut, but a performance full of the power and direct running that won the free-kick for the opener.
So what: City up to six points and gathering pace
Victory lifts City to six points from three league-phase matches — the opening 2-0 win over Porto, last week's 4-2 defeat by PSG in Paris and now this demolition — and into the top six of the table before Wednesday's games, with their goal difference repaired in one night. A top-eight finish and a bye into the last 16 is very much in their hands with five matches to play.
AEK stay on three points and slip towards the play-off places' lower reaches; a 5-1 defeat is damaging for goal difference in a format where it decides ties. City now travel to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Saturday, where Haaland's freshness — and Foden's form — will both be central.
Beyond the Final Whistle: this was a statement about squad depth as much as star power. City rested their record-breaking striker, lost Semenyo for two months, started a 17-year-old — and scored five, with Foden producing the complete attacking performance in the middle of it. If Foden plays like this every week, the debate about City's season stops being about charges and deductions and starts being about trophies. Is this the best version of Phil Foden we have seen? Let us know in the comments.
