“It would be a first for us to finish top of the group and that’s important”.
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Three minutes later Fernandinho doubled the visitors advantage with a header, and though Sevilla pulled a goal back through Benoit Tremoulinas’, Wilfried Bony made it 3-1 on 36 minutes.
City captain Vincent Kompany hailed the growing maturity of his side to have qualified from, on paper, the most hard group in this season’s draw with two games to spare.
Live coverage of the game will be on BT Sport 2 and BT Sport 2 HD.
City moved into first place in Group D with nine points with two games left.
The 28-year-old said: “I imagine it will be a lot easier for us – in the set-up it’s not as desperate”.
New City centre back Nicolas Otamendi has impressed in recent weeks with his towering, powerful performances and the ex-Valencia man knows another strong showing is necessary back in Spain.
Travelling Manchester City supporters cheer on the club during their Champions League match on Tuesday at Sevilla. The sides shared the ball fairly equally though, with the La Liga side just edging the possession, with 53%.
“That was the right way to play, I think we set up well, I think we defended well and we took our chances well”, said the England keeper.
“There is nothing holy about the Champions League anthem”, said the Belgium defender.
City played a different, containing game in the second half, but, after their early breakthrough, there was only going to be one victor.
But from experience, City knows that Europa League winners Sevilla are no pushovers. This team is not prepared to try to draw – we won’t start the game and think it’s a good point.
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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. I think Vinny [Vincent Kompany, City’s captain] has said a few times that we’ve been a little bit naibe and been caught out, but we were really solid. We need to give them [City] a feel of how hard it is to come here and play against us. But within this time, the City could have secured their position in the last 16 and they will do so if they defeat Sevilla and also Juventus win at Borussia Monchengladbach.
