Villarreal squandered a two-goal lead late on at the weekend, and they were similarly leaky at the back in the opening stages here. Not even 30 seconds were on the clock when City missed a gilt-edged opportunity, as only a stunning one-handed save from Luiz Junior prevented Jeremy Doku from opening the scoring.
City were irrepressible in the early stages, and the customary Erling Haaland goal soon arrived when some neat link-up play down the Cityzens’ right ended with Rico Lewis cutting the ball back for the Norwegian to sweep home and score in a 12th successive game for club or country.
The Yellow Submarine offered precious little in an attacking sense throughout the first half, owing largely to City’s dominance, but they were able to manufacture a half-chance shortly before the half-hour mark when Pape Gueye worked a yard on the edge of the area and flashed a left-footed effort narrowly wide.
City, though, managed to make their dominance pay five minutes before the break as they doubled their advantage. Savinho was at the heart of everything good about the visitors, and it was his cross which was headed into the corner by the unmarked Bernardo Silva.
The second half was a bit of a non-event in the opening stages, with City content to just toy with their hosts. Yet they subsequently showed that when they turn it on, they are frighteningly good as Savinho tested Luiz Junior on the hour mark.
It took Villarreal until the 70th minute to work a clear sighting of the City goal, but when they did, they twice went close to halving the arrears within a 30-second spell.
Gueye was first to try his luck, stinging the palms of Gianluigi Donnarumma from the edge of the area, before former Arsenal man Nicolas Pepe ghosted into the area and headed inches wide of the post from six yards out.
Haaland twice almost added some extra gloss to what was a comfortable City win, with only Luiz Junior standing in his way on both occasions.
The Norwegian’s failure to add to his tally for the evening was immaterial in the grand scheme of the result, as Pep Guardiola’s men were untroubled in seeing out what was only their fifth away win in their last 15 UCL away games against Spanish opposition. Defeat for Villarreal means they remain winless in the UCL this term after three matchdays.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Savinho (Manchester City)