Jose Mourinho grew irritated by Manchester United’s second-half display against FC Basel on Tuesday. Despite having long-ball magnet Marouane Fellaini on the pitch from 19 minutes in, the United ranks wanted to entertain with intricate artistry, much to the displeasure of their Portuguese manager (despite a straightforward 3-0 win).

“We stopped playing seriously, we stopped making the right decisions on the pitch. We could have put ourselves in trouble,” Mourinho said post-match.

“Fantasy football, PlayStation football, tricks … I don’t like it. You gamble a little bit. Probably the players thought the game was under control at 2-0, but football is football. You have to respect the opponent.”

Mourinho’s version of respecting the opponent is risk aversion; football of such pragmatism that, when the Fellaini-fronted Plan B is wheeled out, can resemble Stan Cullis’ long-ball tactics at Wolverhampton Wanderers in the mid-20th century. Manchester City, meanwhile, revels in an approach akin to controller-hogging, frantic-button-bashing brilliance.

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

It felt like those in blue had an option each time they found themselves in a tight spot during Wednesday’s 4-0 evisceration of Feyenoord. Guardiola’s obsessive division of the pitch into zones means there’s always at least one player available for a pass because he knows where to be. Kevin De Bruyne continues to be invited to gamble, whipping in crosses and stabbing perfectly weighted through balls into the paths of the frontmen. Bernardo Silva, the player most resembling a creation in the FIFA game franchise, twists and turns like a pesky housefly.

There is a ruthlessness to City but, unlike with United, there is also a clear desire to look pretty while crushing the opponent. Producing a display like the one against Feyenoord – a team that beat Europa League finalist Ajax to the Eredivisie title in 2016-17, and defeated Manchester United 1-0 at the same venue a year earlier – is highly impressive.

For those fans who toured the wilting third-tier grounds in the late 1990s, if the club can keep up outings like this – one of City’s most convincing performances since the Abu Dhabi United Group swelled the bank balance in 2008 – this European excursion could yield a success that would’ve seemed too whimsical even for virtual reality back then.

What’s really made things click for Guardiola is the addition of Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker. The fluid attack is already hard to decipher while Sergio Aguero drops and Gabriel Jesus drifts, but when the full-backs charge up the park – kicking up chalk with a width that makes the pitch bigger for their teammates – it’s difficult to remember what life was like in the 2016-17 term, when fan favourite Pablo Zabaleta and his elderly comrades roused their aching limbs into a flank foray.

The common criticism of this team is that it’s very much a computerised entity. Some of City’s play may resemble stuff that was only conceivable in video games, but Guardiola’s wallet in the transfer windows has granted spends that were only possible when cheating in Football Manager.

Unfortunately for the romanticists, however, City is becoming machine-like. When one player pushes, another one pulls. Guardiola’s system is bearing fruit.

The Spaniard will hit the reset button when City travels to Watford in Saturday’s Premier League fixtures, and returns to continental action with a visit from Shakhtar Donetsk on Sept. 26.

The Champions League group stage openers are in the books, and after Tuesday’s slate of lopsided contests was short on surprises, Wednesday’s eight tilts offered more for fervent supporters and neutral onlookers alike.

One consistent element between the two days were goals, and after 28 tallies were amassed Tuesday, 26 were bagged as Groups E through G locked horns on hump day.

With prowess in attack as a theme, here’s a look at 11 standout performances from a goal-heavy midweek. Keep in mind that this collection fancies offensive-minded football, and as a result, may resemble Qarabag at Stamford Bridge when tracking back:

Edinson Cavani (Paris Saint-Germain): Maligned for being a goal-poacher who requires a high frequency of opportunities to be useful, Edinson Cavani was stellar against Celtic, scoring twice on three shots whilst combining with Neymar and Kylian Mbappe on four of PSG’s five goals. That’s now nine goals in the Uruguayan’s last six outings in all comps.

Harry Kane (Tottenham): The anti-Cavani, Tottenham star Harry Kane, is a shoe-in after an utterly dazzling performance Wednesday against Borussia Dortmund. Two goals and an assist highlight Kane’s efforts in snapping the Wembley curse, giving the 24-year-old braces in his last Champions League match, Premier League outing, and international fixture with England.

Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain): For his career, Neymar has been involved in a Champions League goal every 92.1 minutes. As astounding as that number is, the world’s most expensive player looks set to lower it after a goal and assist against Celtic led the way for the capital club. The lad even donated his kit to King Kenny and Marina Dalglish’s beast cancer charity. Class.

Lionel Messi (Barcelona): The aforementioned Neymar may be gone, but Lionel Messi didn’t appear to skip a beat, registering a maiden goal against Gianluigi Buffon in a 3-0 drubbing of Juventus. The Barcelona star was unplayable, making Alex Sandro look human on his way to notching a match-changing double to give him seven goals in his last 180 minutes of football.

Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City): A member of Manchester City’s attack had to make this team after the 4-0 beatdown of Feyenoord, and Kevin De Bruyne gets the nod. The Belgian completed 91 percent of 105 passes, 100 percent of his take-ons, and even won two tackles while assisting on John Stones’ second on the evening.

Thiago Alcantara (Bayern Munich): Is there a more underrated player on the continent than Thiago Alcantara? When fit, the Spaniard is a tireless worker who controls matches in a central role, and the 26-year-old did exactly that in Bayern Munich’s 3-0 win over Anderlecht. No player on the pitch saw more of the ball than Alcantara, who scored the Bavarians’ second goal on the way to 137 touches.

Willian (Chelsea): While a Tuesday night home fixture against Azerbaijani minnow Qarabag may not be the barometre for a player’s virtues, Chelsea’s Willian was unplayable as part of a front-three alongside Michy Batshuayi and Pedro. The Brazilian played the pivotal ball for Pedro’s fifth-minute opener and bossed the fixture with seven successful dribbles, joint-highest with Neymar in Champions League play.

Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea): Like Willian, versatile defender Cesar Azpilicueta is a Chelsea star who lets his game do the talking. In this instance, the Spaniard narrowly edges Blues debutant Davide Zappacosta for a spot in this collection of elites, completing 86 percent of his passes while winning two aerial duels and three tackles. He does it all.

John Stones (Manchester City): Bit unfair that Manchester City can have one of Europe’s most stacked attacks and still get a two-goal performance from one of its centre-halves. Such are Pep Guardiola’s luxuries as John Stones set the tone with a second-minute opener before doubling that total 18 minutes after the interval. He also completed 131 of 134 passes. Even if the majority of those are ineffectual, that’s an obscene number.

Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich): Philipp Lahm’s successor, Joshua Kimmich, is wasting little time filling the boots of his Die Mannschaft brethren, and against Anderlecht, the 22-year-old was stellar at right-back, assisting on Alcantara’s goal before scoring one of his own on the 90-minute mark. Kimmich also completed 92 percent of his passes whilst combining on the right with Arjen Robben.

Alisson (Roma): Roma managed to hold Atletico Madrid to a scoreless draw at the Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday, and considering Los Colchoneros’ defensive-minded ethos, Diego Simeone’s lot sure was in an attacking mood. That’s where Alisson comes in, and with nine saves, the Brazilian was the midweek’s most influential shot-stopper.

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

Frustrations at the Santiago Bernabeu were once again directed at Gareth Bale as Real Madrid supporters continued the pattern of whistling at the Welsh star during Wednesday’s Champions League win over Apoel Nicosia.

Bale has has been the target of persistent whistling since his arrival in Spain in 2013, with Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane praising the 28-year-old’s composure in the face of adversity last week after another incident during a draw with Valencia.

A section of supporters directed their frustration at Bale after a lackluster performance during Real’s 3-0 victory, but teammate Toni Kroos feels the criticism is unfounded and the whistles don’t benefit anyone in that situation.

“It is, of course, not a good thing to whistle against your own players,” Kroos told reporters, according to ESPN FC. “We gave our all, and Gareth also, and no one deserved it.

“This is Real Madrid and everybody wants to see the best of each player, but there are games where it is impossible to play at the best level.

“But one thing is clear – it does not help anyone.”

Bale isn’t alone. Supporters have a history of jeering other Real Madrid stars, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, who hinted at a possible return to England where he was rarely targeted by Manchester United supporters when he made a mistake.

“I’m very happy being in Spain but obviously I also miss England because you can’t just turn off the memories,” Ronaldo said before last season’s Champions League final against Juventus.

“I don’t like it and it’s not normal that they whistle you in your own stadium. I just don’t like it.

“It shouldn’t be the case that a player who always wants to give his best and give 100 percent for this team, when he makes his first mistake people whistle.”

Since his arrival from Tottenham, Bale has helped the capital-city team win the Liga title and a trio of Champions League crowns – even scoring the winning goal in the first one when Real Madrid beat city rival Atletico Madrid in 2014.

Maurizio Sarri had the look of a man who needed a cigarette. OK, so perhaps that is always true of the Napoli manager – so fond of his smokes that his hometown fan club baked one into a cake for him. Watching him chew his fingers and hang a pen out the corner of his mouth in the away dugout at the Metalist Stadium on Wednesday, though, you sensed that the urge was getting to him on this occasion more than most.

At his press conference one day earlier, he had spoken about the need to start quickly in the Champions League. “In a six-game group, it is clear that the first game will condition everything that comes after,” Sarri said. “So it’s a hugely important game – more than important, in fact.”

And yet, his players had begun sluggishly away to Shakhtar Donetsk, falling behind to a Taison strike after a quarter of an hour. The closest Napoli came to scoring inside the first 40 minutes was on a sliced clearance by Shakhtar defender Ivan Ordets. The Italian side did generate a brief flurry of chances just before the interval, but then gave up another cheap goal to Facundo Ferreyra.

Was Sarri himself to blame? With hindsight, his decision to omit Dries Mertens from Napoli’s starting XI looks like the wrong one. The man who scored 34 goals for this team last season was finally introduced off the bench closely following that second goal, and Napoli was far more threatening thereafter.

The Belgian won the penalty from which the Italians clawed back their lone consolation goal, and Shakhtar’s defenders were plainly unsettled by his dynamism. And yet, the man who started in his stead is no slouch. Arkadiusz Milik is the second-most expensive signing in club history: the man Napoli was supposed to be built around, before he found himself on the wrong side of soccer’s sliding doors.

Twelve months ago to the day, it was Milik who fired Napoli to victory away to another club from Ukraine, Dynamo Kyiv, scoring both goals in a 2-1 win. The response back home was delirious. The headline writers at Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy’s biggest sports paper, dubbed him “dynamite,” and “the man who turns crosses into gold.”

Milik had already struck twice in a league win over Milan, and followed up the Kyiv game by sticking two past Bologna in his next outing. Just 22 years old at the time, and newly arrived in Naples, the Polish striker had been tasked with replacing Serie A’s single-season record goal-scorer, Gonzalo Higuain. He hardly looked fazed by the challenge.

But then he blew out his knee whilst away on international duty. And fate took his job away. Mertens, then a 29-year-old who had spent his entire career on the wing, moved inside and began a goal-scoring tear that not even he could have predicted. During one preposterous December stretch, he found the net nine times in 17 days.

So when Milik came back, Sarri stalled – using the player’s lack of match fitness as an excuse to keep him on the bench. After a full preseason, though, that will no longer fly. Mertens remains Napoli’s first-choice centre-forward, but a player of Milik’s calibre cannot just sit idly by.

On paper, these are nice problems to have. Between the Champions League, Serie A, and the Coppa Italia, Napoli will need to be able to rotate and give starters a rest at times. The problem is that Milik and Mertens are such fundamentally different players that the team must play differently depending on which one of them is leading the line.

With Mertens, Napoli’s attack took on a very distinct playing style – an approach built on rapid movements and interchanges. Flanked by two similarly undersized but technically gifted forwards in Lorenzo Insigne and Jose Callejon, he could assault the spaces behind the defence himself, or just as readily drop deep, pulling defenders out of position and leaving room for his colleagues to do the same.

Milik, by contrast, is a classic No. 9, a focal point who can hold the ball up with his back to goal or get on the end of a cross. Those skills remain as relevant in the modern game as they ever were, but they are very distinct from what Mertens can offer.

It was not that Milik lacked the quality to beat Shakhtar goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov on Wednesday – indeed, he converted the consolation penalty – but that he did not fit together with the team he was playing in. Napoli completed the greatest number of passes of any side in Europe’s top five leagues last season. Milik, on Wednesday, made a grand total of 13.

Sarri cannot simply slot him into Mertens’ role and expect the team to retain its fluency. Perhaps it would serve Napoli better to have a distinct alternative formation when Milik plays, something that works to his strengths. Or maybe a more subtle tweak can be affected without changing the team’s shape.

In either case, though, the manager has little time to start finding answers. Group F of this season’s Champions League already looked daunting enough, with Manchester City and the Dutch champions, Feyenoord, completing the slate. One defeat does not condemn Napoli to elimination. But, just as Sarri predicted, it has changed the outlook for what comes next.