Manchester City beat AEK Athens 5-1 at the Etihad on Tuesday night in Matchday 3 of the Champions League league phase. Phil Foden scored three times, in the 34th, 65th and 76th minutes. Elliot Anderson opened in the 12th, Rayan Cherki scored in the 57th, and Stavros Pilios pulled one back in the 52nd. UEFA named Foden player of the match.

Coach Enzo Maresca changed eight starters from Saturday’s win over Ipswich. Erling Haaland was on the bench, among the substitutes, and did not come on. Al Jazeera, citing AFP, wrote that injuries kept Haaland on the bench and ruled Antoine Semenyo out for eight weeks. The club match report did not publish a medical diagnosis.

Anderson scored his first City goal from a rebound after Enzo Fernández’s free kick hit the bar. Foden doubled the lead before half-time, from a one-two with Rico Lewis. After Pilios scored, Cherki restored the gap with a turn and a shot, then Foden finished the hat-trick. It is City’s second win in this league phase, after the defeat to PSG. AEK have three points, three behind City.

Three home points are not a ticket to the knockout rounds. After three matchdays, qualification stays open. Tuesday’s match is separate from Wednesday’s round — Inter, Real, Galatasaray — and does not close it.

Foden, 26, had scored on Saturday against Ipswich after ten months without a Premier League goal and had not scored in the Champions League since November 2025. Maresca called it good news for the team. A hat-trick on one night is not an England call-up and it is not a European qualification.

UEFA put the match in Tuesday’s round-up, alongside PSG–Barcelona and Liverpool–Villarreal. Those scores do not change the 5-1 at the Etihad and they do not open the last 16.

Image: Arne Museler, cropped by Blackcat, City of Manchester Stadium, 31 July 2023, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, Wikimedia Commons; the stadium in 2023, not Tuesday match.

Sources consulted: Foden shines as Man City rout Athens 5-1 despite Haaland, Semenyo injuries - Al Jazeera, 21 October 2026; Champions League highlights and round-up - UEFA, 20 October 2026.