Foden hat-trick fires Manchester City to 5-1 win over AEK Athens

Phil Foden scored a hat-trick as Manchester City beat AEK Athens 5-1 in the Champions League at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, a result beIN SPORTS described as City's response to their 4-2 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in their previous European match.

Foden struck in the 34th, 65th and 76th minutes. Elliot Anderson opened the scoring in the 12th minute, with ESPN reporting it was his first goal for the club, and Rayan Cherki added City's third in the 57th. Stavros Pilios scored for AEK in the 52nd minute.

The win was City's second in three Champions League matches this season. ESPN's table lists them on six points, with two wins and one defeat, while AEK sit on three points from one win and two losses.

City dominant from the start

City controlled the first half. Sky Sports counted 10 efforts on Alberto Brignoli's goal before the break, and AEK did not manage a shot on target until Pilios scored early in the second half.

That goal briefly brought the visitors within one, but Cherki restored the two-goal cushion within five minutes and Foden added two more to settle it.

Erling Haaland was named on the bench and did not play. According to beIN SPORTS, he was held back because of concerns about an injury picked up in Saturday's 3-2 Premier League win over Ipswich Town. Sky Sports reported that 17-year-old Floyd Samba deputised for him in the starting line-up.

It was City's 10th win in 12 matches in all competitions this season, with two defeats, according to Sky Sports.

Enzo Maresca was candid about the pressure on his side going into the game. "It was not easy, especially after the PSG game," the City manager said. "We had two games that we certainly needed to win, and we did our job."

AEK manager Marko Nikolic, whose side are in the Champions League group phase for only the second time in 20 years, said his team had not come to defend. "We didn't want to sit back and try to survive, like I said before the game. We wanted to be dangerous with the ball."

A landmark night for Foden

The numbers around Foden's evening tell their own story. Before this match he had one goal and two assists in seven appearances in all competitions this season, according to beIN SPORTS. Sky Sports noted it was the first time he had scored three in a match since April 2024.

beIN SPORTS reported that it was the first Champions League hat-trick by a City player since Haaland scored five against RB Leipzig in March 2023, and that Foden became only the third Englishman to score a hat-trick and provide an assist in a Champions League match, after Wayne Rooney and Raheem Sterling.

Maresca has backed him throughout, and did so again afterwards. "I've said since day one, I consider him one of the best English players," he said. "For different reasons, in the last two years, he was not good enough. But I know how good he is. We are trying to help him because we are sure he's going to help us."

Foden himself was measured. "I enjoyed that a lot," he told TNT Sports. "We showed determination again; it wasn't pretty at times, giving sloppy passes away, but I thought we stuck at the game plan, we kept going, and in the end we broke them down."

He was clear that he does not regard the job as done. "I've still got a long way [before I'm back at my best], but I'm going in the right direction and scoring along the way. It definitely helps."

What it means

For City, the result does two things. It steadies a European campaign that had taken a knock against PSG, putting them on six points after three matches, and it hands Maresca a Foden who looks far closer to the player he has been describing since he arrived.

With Haaland's fitness being managed and a teenager leading the line on Tuesday, goals from elsewhere in the side matter. Anderson, Cherki and Foden supplied five of them here.

Foden's own view of what comes next was simple. "I just want to keep working hard and trying to be the best I can for the manager and for the team."