MANCHESTER: Erling Haaland provided Pep with a comeback victory over Borussia Dortmund in what was the Manchester City manager’s 150th match in the Champions League.

City won 2-1 after Dortmund held them at bay for 78 minutes and even took the lead through Jude Bellingham. Guardiola had now won 95 of those Champions League matches, third only to Sir Alex Ferguson (102) and Carlo Ancelotti (99).

The tie was City’s first game in eight days after last weekend’s Premier League fixtures had been postponed after the death of the Queen.

Ilkay Gundogan said before the game that he hoped the arrival of Erling Haaland would change City’s Champions League fortunes. They lost in the final to Chelsea in 2021 and Gundogan, perhaps in his last season with City, said: “In the last few years, the way we got knocked out was a little tragic the way it happened. Now having a proper No9, a proper striker who is strong and determined will help us a lot. The Champions League is a tough competition and little details can decide the outcome.”

City were unbeaten in their previous 20 Champions League home games, winning 18 and drawing two. This was the longest run by an English side since Chelsea’s 21 between September 2006 and December 2009. By contrast Dortmund had not won away to an English side in the competition since beating Arsenal 2:1 in October 2013.

Both teams observed a minute of silence in tribute to the Queen and Guardiola was not happy with his team’s slow start his team after kickoff. Within minutes he was out into the edge of his technical area, gesturing to Joao Cancelo, Gundogan and Haaland.

Guardiola’s concern proved justified. The first serious attempt at goal came from Dortmund when Salih Ozcan’s shot from the edge of the penalty area was safely caught by Ederson. Then Anthony Modeste was denied a shot at goal by a late interception from Manuel Akanji.

Dortmund faced up tidily to City in midfield and restricted them to more time than they would have wanted on their passing game. Sule & Co had no difficulty defending City corners and Haaland was forced to drop deep to look for both the ball and space in which to work.

Guardiola’s halftime orders to his team would have been to keep on playing their usual patient football and await Dortmund mistakes; Edin Terzic would have asked for the same level of concentration in defence and discipline in midfield.

They also created the first opening of the second half. England’s Jude Bellingham provided the assist for Marco Reus to cut inside Akanji and shoot across goal. Reus had scored in both Dortmund’s visits to City and his latest attempt brought Guardiola back to his touchline in concern.

Guardiola was right to be worried. In the 56th minute Reyna’s long, out-swinging corner was returned into the goal area by Reus for Bellingham to steal in behind the City defence and head Dortmund n front.

The goal prompted City into a triple change with Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and Julian Alvarez replacing Jack Grealish, Riyad Mahrez and Gundogan.

Bellingham’s goal was his fourth in the Champions League, the most ever by an English teenager in what was 18th appearance, also a record for an English player under 20.

At last City showed more urgency. Haaland was just off target with his first shot of the match then John Stones unleash an unstoppable equaliser in the 79th minute. Four minutes later and Haaland, inevitably, put City ahead with an acrobatic stretch to Joao Cancelo’s cross. The  goal was Haaland’s 13th in nine appearances since joining City from Dortmund.

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