Manchester City booked their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League after securing a thrilling 3-1 win over Sevilla on Tuesday night.
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Manuel Pellegrini’s well set-up side did most of the damage inside the first eight minutes as the outstanding Fernandinho teed up Raheem Sterling for the opener and then headed in a second himself.
The La Liga side did reduce the deficit in the 25th minute when Coke got to the byline and pulled the ball back for Benoit Tremoulinas to send a close-range header past Joe Hart.
Now, this tornado of hooliganism has sucked in Manchester City as Sevilla fans reportedly targeted visiting fans as they were in Seville for today’s Sevilla/Manchester City game. No English club made it to the quarterfinals last season and it is over three years since a Premier League side made it to the final.
“It’s a hard group and so for us to qualify with two games spare is an incredible achievement”, said the City skipper.
Gladbach, who went into the game on the back of three consecutive victories across all competitions, took the lead inside the first 20 minutes through Fabian Johnson, but Lichtsteiner’s equaliser ended their hopes of qualifying from Group D with two games left to play.
Pellegrini raised eyebrows by naming in-form Kevin De Bruyne as a substitute, but his decision to deploy Fernando in a deep role paid dividends nearly immediately.
It worked superbly with Fernandinho the game’s central figure – strong in defence and both creative and quick in attack.
“It was probably the best performance we have had in the Champions League so far and the biggest thing to take from the game was we weren’t naïve”.
Pellegrini confirmed that Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Samir Nasri and Pablo Zabaleta remain injured but Fabian Delph is back in the squad as debate rages among City fans over the merits of playing two holding midfielders in Europe. We needed to win away in Rome and we played very, very well.
“I hadn’t been happy with the way we had been playing, even when we were winning. We can get excited because we are in the Champions League but the league is where we have to achieve our priorities”, he said.
“I think in the first game you saw that we have a good team when we play for each other”, said the winger.
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PSG will rue their poor finishing as they missed several chances, especially in the first period when Adrien Rabiot’s volley hit the post after 37 minutes.
