Manchester City, like last season, began their Champions League campaign at home against an Italian team. Defending champions Napoli also featured Kevin De Bruyne, who has scored over 100 goals in over 400 appearances for City over the past ten seasons.

The first twenty minutes were evenly matched, but the visitors fell behind in the 21st minute. Phil Foden teased Erling Haaland, who was brought down by the late Giovanni Di Lorenzo in the penalty area. The referee initially waved the ball on, but VAR indicated that there might have been a foul. Felix Zwayer changed his decision after a short video review and sent off the Napoli captain. The restart brought a huge home advantage, but the visitors' Serbian goalkeeper, Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, showed several great feats to keep his goal from the goal.

Manchester City decided the match in twenty minutes of the second half. In the 56th minute, Haaland nodded into the bottom left corner after a soft lift from Foden, then in the 65th minute, after a pass from Tijjani Reijnders, Jérémy Doku slalomed through the defenders, then shot into the bottom left corner from five meters. 2–0