Man City player ratings v Red Star Belgrade: Six score 7/10 in 3-2 Champions League win - gallery

Manchester City ended their 2023/24 Champions League group campaign with a 3-2 win over Red Star Belgrade.

City already knew they had secured top spot, but the win in Serbia ensured they maintained a 100 percent record throughout the group. It was debutant Micah Hamilton who got things going for City with a first-half strike, while Oscar Bobb and Kalvin Phillips also grabbed their first goals from the club in the second period.

Pep Guardiola made nine changes for the game with Mateo Kovacic and Jack Grealish the only players to retain their places from Saturday’s win over Luton Town.

Those alterations led to a slow start from the European champions, who didn’t really get going until Hamilton’s opener, when Grealish and Matheus Nunes combined, with the latter playing the ball to City’s debutant. Hamilton drove into the box, carved out half a yard of space on his right, and fired the ball past Red Star stopper Omri Glazer.

City found their groove from that moment on, and Nunes’ runs from deep proved particularly effective. He should have converted from a Kovacic cross in the 33rd minute, but the shot flew wide, with the referee’s assistant raising his flag moments later. That was one of several dangerous crosses that City failed to capitalise on in the first half, while Bobb saw a dangerous effort blocked.

But, it wasn’t all one-way pressure and Kosta Nedeljkovic cut inside and curled wide with his left foot, while in the second half Stefan Ortega made good stops to deny Cherif Ndiaye and Guelor Kanga with second of each other.

It was City who got the next goal though, as Bobb picked up the ball midway inside the opposition box and, after advancing beyond Aleksandar Dragovic, dropped his shoulder and coolly slotted the ball into the bottom corner.

Red Star responded well to that setback with Srdan Mijailovic hitting the post, before Hwang In-beom halved the arrears for the hosts. The South Korean midfielder managed to get on Phillips’ blind side and fired a shot into the net.

That wasn’t the end of the scoring, with Hamilton dragged down in the box by Nasser Djiga, allowing Phillips the chance to net from the spot. Aleksandar Katai headed in the fifth and final goal of the game soon after, as he capitalised on some sloppy City defending from a corner.

The meant City finished the group having scored three goals in all six group games and, somewhat surprisingly, conceded seven across those matches. Here's how we rated City' players in Belgrade...