Man City win 5-1 but Kane 'would have had a hat-trick' against poor Club Brugge

Riyad Mahrez netted a double, while full-back pair Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker both found the net, as did academy graduate Cole Palmer, but it could have been even easier.

Pep Guardiola installed young star Phil Foden as a false No.9 on the day, and Brugge looked a completely different side to the one that outplayed Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig earlier in the competition, barely touching the ball.

City created chance after chance in an utterly dominant first half, but needed Cancelo to break the deadlock with a sublime run and finish.

Mahrez as good as ended the game before the break after winning and scoring a penalty for a 2-0 lead, but City should have been even further clear.

"I don't know what he's doing, but if Harry Kane's watching this game, he's thinking, I'd have had a hat-trick by now," former Man City star Danny Mills told talkSPORT.

"There's been four or five balls put across the six yard box where there's been nobody in there."

City put the game to bed in the second half when Walker and Palmer netted excellent goals before Hans Vanaken bagged a consolation and Mahrez rounded off the scoring with his second.

It was one of the easiest games City will play this season as they barely gave Brugge a touch of the ball, but concerns remain over the club's failure to land a striker during the summer transfer window.

Brugge had been one of the biggest surprises of this season's Champions League, beating Leipzig 2-1 whilst out-playing a PSG side that featured Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe starting for the first time to claim a 1-1 draw.

But City had no such issues, utterly dominating the Belgian champions from the first whistle.

The only issue was a finishing touch, with City's quintet of attacking midfielders setting up wonderful opportunities that continued to go begging.

Former City defender and talkSPORT co-commentator Mills was frustrated by what he was watching saying: "People will say it's lazy commentary or it's too easy to say that Manchester City don't have a centre forward.

"But in the first 20 minutes of this game it's so blatantly obvious, there's been balls put in from wide areas, from Mahrez, from Grealish, from Foden, from De Bruyne.

"You're playing with two outstanding wide players that want to come in onto their wrong foot play either one-twos into the centre forward, or put the ball into the box, but there's no one in there for them."

City twice had the ball in the net in the first 15 minutes, but lacked a striker's instinct with Grealish and Rodri both called offside.

And there were other chances and promising positions too, leaving Mills peeved.

"Harry Kane must be watching this thinking, I'd have scored probably 12 goals for City by now this season, if I'd be in their team," he said.

"The amount of chances they create, they way that they play the ball into a centre forward.

"And that's the problem because Foden, as great as he is, he's not a centre forward.

"Lewandowski in this team would have scored six by now, Erling Haaland too. Brugge are poor, let's be honest."

But whether Guardiola will go in for a centre-forward in the January transfer window remains to be seen.