The 2023/24 Champions League season continues, for Manchester City, after encountering the devil's schedule, there is a wave of injuries, Haaland is also exempt after De Bruyne, and then there is the Club World Cup, so Guardiola rotated the starting lineup in the final round of the Champions League group stage, and a number of academy players were able to start, in the away game against Red Star Belgrade, in the first half, Nunes assisted the 20-year-old Hamilton to score, in the second half, Lewis assisted Bob to expand the score, Huang Renfan pulled a goal back, Phillips scored a penalty to expand the score, and Red Star pulled a goal back in stoppage time, and finally Manchester City won 3-2 away.
Red Star Belgrade played against Manchester City, the home team sent a starting lineup of 29.25 million euros, Bukari, Ndiaye partnered in the front, Guilor, Srdan, Huang Renfan sat in the midfield, Costa, Yakuba, Spajic, Dragovic, Olayinka formed the defensive line, and Omri guarded the gate. For Manchester City, Pep Guardiola sent a starting lineup of 330 million euros, with Oscar Bob in the front position, Grealish, Nunez, Hamilton in midfield, Kovacic, Phillips in the back, Gomez, Akanji, Stones, Lewis to form the defensive line, Ortega to guard the goal.
In the second minute of the game, Nunes broke through on the right and ran into the box, but Grealish, who was outflanked in the middle, did not get a chance to shoot. In the 19th minute, Nunes sent a diagonal pass in the middle of the advance, Hamilton smashed into the box on the right and shook off the defender and scored from a small angle to score his first goal in the Champions League, Manchester City broke the deadlock and led Red Star Belgrade 1-0 away. In the 27th minute, Red Star Belgrade counter-attacked, Ned Ikkovic broke through on the right and entered the penalty area past Grealish and fired a shot slightly high.
In the 33rd minute, Kovacic broke through on the left and crossed low, and Nunez, who followed up in the box, pushed high. In the 44th minute, Nunes drove straight into the middle of the penalty area with a long drive to the edge of the penalty area, Hamilton stepped forward on the right side into the penalty area and swept in front of the goal, Bob who followed up in the middle was slightly slower by half a beat, and then Gomez shot high from the top of the arc.
In the second half, the two teams changed sides and fought again, in the 51st minute, Bukari burst into the penalty area on the right side and crossed, and the sideways volley from Kanga at the back point was saved by Ortega, and Olayinka's long-range shot from the edge of the box was also saved by Ortega. In the 62nd minute, Lewis held the ball in the middle to advance the middle ball, and Bob on the right side broke through the inside cut to get rid of the defense and then entered the penalty area to shake off the angle and shoot, the ball rolled into the goal around the goalkeeper, Manchester City expanded the score and led the Red Star 2-0.
In the 75th minute, Phillips made a mistake at the back, Bukari crossed diagonally at the top of the arc, Huang In-beom burst into the penalty area on the left and scored with a low shot, and Red Star pulled a goal back, trailing Manchester City 1-2 at home. In the 84th minute, Hamilton broke into the box on the left and was brought down by Guiga, the referee decisively awarded a penalty, Phillips took the penalty to hit, Manchester City extended the score 3-1. In stoppage time, Red Star headed in a corner from the left and Katai scored with a header in the box as City won 3-2 away at Red Star Belgrade.
Looking at the post-match stats, Manchester City had 69% possession and 3 shots on target from 10 attempts, while Red Star had 31% possession and 6 shots on target from 11 attempts. After this campaign, Manchester City won all 6 games in the group stage, scored 18 goals, Guardiola led the team to win all the Champions League group stage for the first time in the history of coaching, and remained unbeaten in 20 games in the Champions League, and was also England's first team to win eight consecutive European games.