Manchester City ensured that the top three in the Champions League standings all belong to the Premier League on Wednesday evening by scoring five goals against Sparta Prague. They also now have the longest unbeaten record in European Cup history.

Aston Villa’s win over Bologna on Tuesday, followed by Liverpool’s victory over RB Leipzig 24 hours later, means both teams are still in possession of 100% records in this season’s competition.

But City’s heavy defeat against Sparta was enough to propel Pep Guardiola’s side into third place thanks to a better goal difference than the six other teams, who also have seven points.

It was no defeat from start to finish, although Phil Foden gave City the lead after just three minutes. There were other chances saved by visiting goalkeeper Peter Vindahl, but it all depended on Erling Haaland’s acrobatic heel volley.

Guardiola said afterwards that it was an “incredible joy” to have Haaland in his team.

This goal, set up by Savinho’s skillful dribbling, could be nominated for a Puskas Award in the future and served to break Sparta’s resistance. John Stones scored City’s third goal just six minutes later, followed by another for Haaland just four more minutes later.

Matheus Nunes, who had already done his confidence a lot of good with his assists for City’s third and fourth goals, rounded off the night with a penalty in the closing moments.

It was City’s 26th consecutive Champions League game without defeat, breaking Manchester United’s previous 25-game record between 2007 and 2009. Guardiola’s side reached that number in their last game against Slovan Bratislava and have now surpassed it .

The 2022/23 European champions have not lost a game at this level since May 2022, when Real Madrid won 3-1 in the semi-final second leg at the Bernabeu. Looking to extend their new record to 27 games unbeaten, City travel to Portugal early next month to face Sporting CP on matchday four.