Manchester City struck twice in the opening 13 minutes at the Etihad Stadium to set themselves up for result that lifted them six points clear of the Serie A leaders, and their supposed chief rivals, in Group F.

Napoli hit back strongly with Dries Mertens having a penalty saved before Amadou Diawara did score from the spot, but City survived a nervy finish.

Star Man

Kevin De Bruyne: The in-form Belgian was again City's most influential player. He delivered a superb cross for Jesus to score and hit the bar himself soon after.

He went close from a free-kick late in the game and another fine pass for Leroy Sane led to another good chance.

Kevin De Bruyne celebrates the second goal after putting it on a platter for Jesus (
Image:
REX/Shutterstock)

Moment of the match

Sterling's opening goal after nine minutes ignited the atmosphere at the Etihad Stadium.

It seemed City had just carried on from where they left off against Stoke at the weekend as they played some exhilarating football in the opening half hour. They could easily have scored four goals in his period.

Follow all the action as it happened below, plus all the stats you could ever need.

This is how Kyle Walker gave away the penalty, with a foul on Napoli's Raul Albiol (
Image:
Action Images via Reuters)

Ederson denying Mertens from the spot

Dries Mertens' penalty is denied by Ederson (
Image:
REX/Shutterstock)

GOAL 2-0 Jesus' opener in pictures

(
Image:
AFP)

GOAL 1-0 Sterling's opener in pictures

(
Image:
Getty Images Europe)

De Bruyne to be rewarded with his wages doubled

As we await kick-off, here’s some good news for Kevin De Bruyne.

He is set to double his wages at Manchester City with a new deal after his explosive start to the new season.

De Bruyne’s agent has confirmed he will open talks with City over a lucrative new contract for his client, whom City boss Pep Guardiola hailed as “the best player in Europe bar one”.

Belgium international De Bruyne, 26, is currently on £110,000-a-week but will see that salary rocket to £220,000-a-week under the terms of the new deal.

De Bruyne’s agent, Patrick De Koster, said: ‘In the coming months I’ll meet with City to figure out how to improve and extend his contract.


How Napoli line up

City are unchanged for the fifth time under Pep Guardiola and this is the same line-up responsible for that incredible 7-2 win at Stoke at the weekend.

Jesus comes into the match in red hot form (
Image:
Manchester City FC)

Man City's line-up for tonight

An unsurprisingly attacking line-up from Pep Guardiola tonight with Jesus, Sterling and Sane the trio for De Bruyne’s magic to aim at. Aguero on the bench is a bit of a luxury.

Europe's most potent teams

There’s no doubting the potency of tonight’s sides - they are Europe’s most attacking so far this season.
City have been in fine goalscoring form this season, bagging 29 goals from eight league games.
Napoli are only just behind them with 26 from as many matches, with Saturday’s one-nil win over Roma being the only time they’ve scored fewer than three goals in a league game this season.
It makes Napoli and City the top scorers in their respective leagues and along with PSG (also 29 goals) the top scorers in Europe’s five biggest leagues.
In fact, at 3.6 goals per game City have the best attack of any league in Europe in 2017/18 while Napoli have the joint second with PSV at 3.3 goals per game.
As you might imagine, the two sides have also had plenty of shots.
City have had 155 attempts on goal in the league this season according to figures taken from Opta.
Only Liverpool have had more in England with 156.
Napoli have also had 155 shots on goal in the league, by far and away the most of any Serie A club. AC Milan have had the next most with
138.
In Europe’s top leagues only Real Madrid have had more shots (161) though PSV have had 164.

Scarves honour Man City's goals and assist kings (
Image:
Action Images via Reuters)

Greetings

Pep Guardiola has told Kevin De Bruyne he needs to win major trophies before he can be compared to Lionel Messi.

De Bruyne dazzled in Manchester City’s destruction of Stoke and has notched 25 goals and 37 assists in his 100 games for the Blues.

Messi stands alone for Guardiola as the world’s best player and the City boss says de Bruyne needs to lift the game’s biggest prizes to get to his level.

“If he wants to be considered as one of the best, he needs to win titles and we are here to help him achieve that,” said Guardiola. “The best is just one, but he can be one of the best.”

Guardiola would love de Bruyne to get to Messi’s level, but is wary of putting him under pressure by comparing him to the Barcelona star.

“I would love not only Kevin but all the players I have had in the past to get to the level of Messi,” said the Catalan.

“It would be a massive thing for my teams because we would win a lot of games.

“But I don’t want to put pressure on Kevin. Kevin is an outstanding, amazing player and a humble guy.”