The first public football match at the stadium was a friendly between Manchester City and Barcelona on 10 August 2003.
Manchester City won the game 2–1, with Nicolas Anelka scoring the first ever goal in the stadium.

The first competitive match followed four days later, a UEFA Cup match between Manchester City and Welsh Premier League side The New Saints, which City won 5–0 with Trevor Sinclair scoring the first competitive goal in the stadium.
Having started the Premier League season with an away match, Manchester City's first home league fixture in the new stadium was on 23 August, a game drawn 1–1 with Portsmouth, with Pompey's Yakubu scoring the first league goal in the stadium.

2011–12 saw the Etihad Stadium play host to the setting of a number of new club and Premier League footballing records, such as the club becoming the first ever team to win eleven of its opening twelve games in a Premier League season, and going on to remain unbeaten at the Etihad Stadium in all nineteen of the Premier League games played there.
The club's record of 55 home points out of a possible 57 at the stadium is a joint best Premier League record, and the club's record of twenty consecutive home wins at the stadium (going back to the end of the previous season) also set a new Premier League record in March 2012.

The record football attendance at the stadium not involving its host team Manchester City is 43,878, which was set at the 2008 UEFA Cup Final game between Zenit Saint Petersburg and Rangers on 14 May 2008.
As is customary for such games, the then 47,715 maximum physical capacity of the stadium had been reduced by UEFA to around 44,000 for this final.
However, neither limit would have been able to accommodate the vast number of supporters of the Scottish club, estimated to be in excess of 130,000, that travelled down from Glasgow to Manchester on the day of the game, despite the club's official ticket allocation being just 13,000 and police requests for fans without tickets to stay home.
This order of magnitude mismatch between the numbers of traveling fans and those holding tickets ultimately led to a serious public disorder incident in the centre of the city now inextricably associated with this final, despite the fact that the 44,000 or so crowd who watched the game inside the stadium were perfectly well-behaved.
The first public football match at the stadium was a friendly between Manchester City and Barcelona on 10 August 2003. Manchester City won the game 2–1, with Nicolas Anelka scoring the first ever goal in the stadium.
The first competitive match followed four days later, a UEFA Cup match between Manchester City and Welsh Premier League side The New Saints, which City won 5–0 with Trevor Sinclair scoring the first competitive goal in the stadium. Having started the Premier League season with an away match, Manchester City's first home league fixture in the new stadium was on 23 August, a game drawn 1–1 with Portsmouth, with Pompey's Yakubu scoring the first league goal in the stadium.
2011–12 saw the Etihad Stadium play host to the setting of a number of new club and Premier League footballing records, such as the club becoming the first ever team to win eleven of its opening twelve games in a Premier League season, and going on to remain unbeaten at the Etihad Stadium in all nineteen of the Premier League games played there. The club's record of 55 home points out of a possible 57 at the stadium is a joint best Premier League record, and the club's record of twenty consecutive home wins at the stadium (going back to the end of the previous season) also set a new Premier League record in March 2012.
The record football attendance at the stadium not involving its host team Manchester City is 43,878, which was set at the 2008 UEFA Cup Final game between Zenit Saint Petersburg and Rangers on 14 May 2008. As is customary for such games, the then 47,715 maximum physical capacity of the stadium had been reduced by UEFA to around 44,000 for this final. However, neither limit would have been able to accommodate the vast number of supporters of the Scottish club, estimated to be in excess of 130,000, that travelled down from Glasgow to Manchester on the day of the game, despite the club's official ticket allocation being just 13,000 and police requests for fans without tickets to stay home. This order of magnitude mismatch between the numbers of traveling fans and those holding tickets ultimately led to a serious public disorder incident in the centre of the city now inextricably associated with this final, despite the fact that the 44,000 or so crowd who watched the game inside the stadium were perfectly well-behaved.
City of Manchester Stadium