Manchester City secured a historic achievement on Wednesday night, ensuring that all top three spots in the Champions League standings are held by Premier League teams after putting five goals past Sparta Prague. They also now hold the record for the longest unbeaten streak in European Cup history.
Following Aston Villa’s win over Bologna on Tuesday and Liverpool’s victory against RB Leipzig the next day, both teams maintained their 100% records in this season’s competition.
However, the dominant nature of City’s victory lifted Pep Guardiola’s side into third place, thanks to a superior goal difference compared to six other teams with seven points.
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The match didn’t start as a complete rout, although Phil Foden gave City an early lead just three minutes in. While visiting goalkeeper Peter Vindahl made several saves, the turning point came with Erling Haaland’s spectacular acrobatic backheel volley.
Guardiola expressed his “incredible joy” at having Haaland on his team. The goal, assisted by Savinho’s impressive dribble, broke Sparta’s resistance. John Stones followed up with City’s third just six minutes later, and Haaland scored again only four minutes after that.
Matheus Nunes, who contributed assists for both the third and fourth goals, capped off the night with a penalty in the final moments.
This victory marked City’s 26th consecutive Champions League game without defeat, surpassing the previous record of 25 set by Manchester United between 2007 and 2009. City matched that record in their last outing against Slovan Bratislava and have now gone beyond it.
The reigning European champions have not lost in this competition since May 2022, when they were defeated 3-1 by Real Madrid in the semi-finals at the Bernabeu. To extend their new record to 27 games unbeaten, City will travel to Portugal to face Sporting CP on matchday four early next month.