Man City vs. Napoli: Head-to-head record and past meetings

Manchester City kickstarted their Champions League campaign with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Napoli on Thursday night in the league phase.

The Citizens controlled the match from minute one, helped by Giovanni Di Lorenzo's 21st-minute dismissal, with Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku scoring the goals to give them all three points.

Here, Sports Mole takes an in-depth look at the head-to-head record and previous meetings between the two sides.

Head-to-head record

Previous meetings: 5

Manchester City wins: 3

Draws: 1

Napoli wins: 1

Manchester City and Napoli have faced each other just five times across all competitions, with each encounter taking place in the group stage/league phase of the Champions League.

Their first four meetings saw both teams score at least once, but that changed in their fifth encounter as Manchester City ran out 2-0 winners, thanks to goals from Haaland and Doku.

Haaland's strike in that clash saw the striker smash the Champions League record for the fastest player to reach 50 goals in the competition, with the Norwegian netting his half-century in just 49 games - 13 fewer than previous holder Ruud van Nistelrooy's 62 games.

That victory took Manchester City's total triumphs over Napoli to three, while the Italian side have won just the once, alongside a singular draw.

The very first meeting between Man City and Napoli took place in September 2011 and this fixture represented the former's first ever in the Champions League. Edinson Cavani opened the scoring for the Italians, but a superb second-half free kick from Aleksandar Kolarov restored parity and rescued a 1-1 draw for the Citizens at the Etihad.

Just over two months later, Napoli secured their first and only win to date over Man City in the reverse fixture in Italy, a result that proved crucial to help I Partenopei qualify for the knockout rounds at the expense of the Citizens. Mario Balotelli was on the scoresheet for Man City, but Cavani was at the double for Napoli to seal maximum points.

Man City and Napoli had to wait six years to renew acquaintances with one another in the Champions League group stage, and it was the former who enjoyed both meetings as they did the double over their Italian counterparts.

Pep Guardiola's Citizens claimed a narrow 2-1 victory on home soil in October 2017, courtesy of first-half goals from Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, just 15 days before City won by a 4-2 scoreline in Naples, with Sergio Aguero netting a memorable third goal which saw him become the club's all-time leading goalscorer.