Manchester City won big in the Champions League, beating AEK Athens 5-1 on Tuesday night. The hero was Phil Foden, who scored three goals on his own.
The past two seasons have not gone well for Foden. The 26-year-old English midfielder has himself spoken about mental health problems, and earlier this year he was left out of the World Cup squad. Before scoring against Ipswich on Saturday he had gone almost 10 months without a goal, and he had not scored in the Champions League since November 2025. The night was a big relief for him.
City went ahead after 12 minutes. Enzo Fernandez’s free kick came back off the bar and Elliot Anderson took the chance, putting the ball into an empty net from 10 yards. It was his first goal for City since joining from Nottingham Forest.
Foden doubled the lead in the 34th minute. A quick exchange of passes with Rico Lewis took him through AEK’s defence, and he sent the ball into the roof of the net from a tight angle.
City lost focus after the break. Stavros Pilios pulled a goal back for AEK in the 52nd minute, with their first shot on target. But in the 57th minute City were two goals ahead again: Foden played the ball to the edge of the box and Rayan Cherki turned and scored with a superb shot.
In the 65th minute Foden took a pass from Rico Lewis and scored from 18 yards. In the 76th minute he turned in Ryan McAidoo’s cross to complete his hat-trick, his first in two years.
It was City’s second win of the league phase. They beat Porto in their first match and lost last week to the holders, Paris Saint-Germain. They have won 10 of their 11 matches this season.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report