By Opta Analyst | Created at 2025-01-30 04:41:11 | Updated at 2025-01-30 17:25:05
12 hours ago
Man City came from behind against Club Brugge to keep themselves in this season’s Champions League, but have a daunting play-off opponent ahead. Check out the best facts and Opta data in our Man City vs Club Brugge stats page.
Manchester City survived a real scare to book their place in the UEFA Champions League knockout play-offs after coming from behind to beat Club Brugge 2-1 on Wednesday, but will face either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the next stage.
On Matchday 8 of the inaugural league phase of the Champions League, City knew they had to win to stay in the competition, and had to rely on Mateo Kovacic and an own goal to overturn a one-goal deficit after Raphael Onyedika’s first-half strike.
The win sees City finish in 22nd place in the table, meaning they will have a blockbuster tie with either Real Madrid (11th) or Bayern (12th) in the play-offs. Club Brugge just about stayed in the competition too, finishing 24th and will face either Atalanta (9th) or Borussia Dortmund (10th).
City took a while to get going, and didn’t have a shot on target in the first half as the nerves were very much on show.
It was the Belgians who went ahead to silence the Etihad Stadium. Ferran Jutglà burst down the left on the counter attack, and his cross was deflected into the path of Onyedika, who fired inside Ederson’s near post.
John Stones missed a glorious chance to score early in the second half when heading wide with a header, but soon after Kovacic did find the net. The Croatian strolled through the Brugge defence with ease before stroking the ball past Simon Mignolet.
Kovacic has now scored six Champions League goals with each of them coming in different seasons and for four different teams (Dinamo Zagreb, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Man City). Only Zlatan Ibrahimovic (6), Hernán Crespo (5) and Álvaro Morata (5) have scored for more different teams in the competition.
Brugge almost retook the lead immediately but Ederson made a save to deny Hans Vanaken, while Christos Tzolis fired just wide minutes later.
It was City who did nudge ahead though, with Josko Gvardiol’s low cross diverted into his own net by Brugge defender Joel Ordóñez.
Erling Haaland had a quiet night, but almost made it three with 18 minutes remaining, only for former Liverpool goalkeeper Mignolet to make the save when he was put through on goal.
Mignolet was unable to keep out Savinho moments later though, with the substitute chesting down a ball from Stones and firing through the goalkeeper to make it three. Savinho has been directly involved in five goals in his last six appearances in all competitions (2 goals, 3 assists), more than across his first 23 outings for City (4 assists).
It was a night of relief for City, but a bigger test awaits them next month in the play-offs.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Man City vs Club Brugge stats from their UEFA Champions League meeting at the Etihad Stadium.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own post-match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
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