SEVILLA 1, MANCHESTER CITY 3
Manchester City powered into top spot after a 3-1 win in Seville and qualified for the knockout round with two games to spare after Borussia Monchengladbach drew 1-1 with Juventus at home.
The result meant that Sevilla couldn’t overhaul City because of their superior head-to-head record even if the Spanish team could overcome the six point gap that had opened up in Group D of this season’s Champions League competition.
Manuel Pellegrini has displayed a steelier side of his nature in recent games after losing the services of two of City’s key players – Sergio Aguero and David Silva.
He has been unafraid to shuffle his pack and make sure that City didn’t lose if they didn’t look likely to win but City were just too good to contemplate a draw tonight.
He said: “I’m very happy because we played a complete game in every sense: physical, technical and tactical. We defended very well and we had good possession of the ball during the whole game.
“We scored three goals and I think that we missed at least four or five clear chances to score more.” said the Chilean as he explained City’s return to attacking form was due to a tactical reshuffle after some recent pragmatic displays.
Yaya Toure and Fernandinho were allowed to raid forward at will with Sevilla’s full backs occupied by the pace of Raheem Sterling and Jesus Navas, making an emotional return to his former club with whom he played 285 games in 10 years before joining City in 2013.
All four attacking players pushed up to join Wilfried Bony up front, leaving Fernando to sit in midfield and protect City’s defence.
“We changed the system today and fortunately we made a very good game. It’s important that we qualified with two games to spare.
“We will try and qualify in first position in the group and if we continue playing this way we will have a good chance.”
The Chilean heaped praise on Raheem Sterling, restored to the starting line-up at the expense of Kevin De Bruyne who was rested after showing signs of fatigue against Norwich City last weekend.
He said: “[Raheem] played very well, one of the best players in the team.
“All the players played well and when the team plays well it’s easier for individual players to have a good performance.
“Maybe if we don’t win in the way we did, an important part of you will be asking why Kevin didn’t play but I think we have a squad and it was important that I made changes because I repeat I was not happy in the way we were playing.”
Pellegrini had reason to be especially proud of City’s first half salvo which blew away Sevilla, who had never been defeated at home in a Champions League game.
City found themselves 2-0 up within 11 minutes after Sterling, who had an excellent game, became City’s youngest ever scorer in the Champions League at 20 years and 330 days after eight minutes with his sixth goal of the season from an acute angle on the left of the goal after Fernandinho’s pass.
Three minutes later, Sterling turned provider as his cross for Wilfried Bony allowed the Ivorian to try his luck with a shot that that saved by Sergio Rico but the rebound was headed home by Fernandinho.
Rico had to save from Aleksandar Kolarov before Navas’ run and shot thumped the woodwork after the Spaniard shot narrowly wide during a breathless opening period.
City began to regret their profligacy when Benoit Tremoulinas exploited a sleeping City defence by stealing in to head Coke’s lofted ball into an empty net after Joe Hart was left exposed to reduce the deficit to 2-1.
Bony atoned for earlier misses by restoring City’s two goal advantage in the the 36th minute after Navas laid on the ball for him. Fernandinho and Bony went on to try their luck in the second half as Sevilla struggled to contain their visitors.
City remained comfortable and a mark of City’s newfound pragmatism was the late introduction of Martin Demichelis and Fabian Delph as they closed out the game in the last few minutes.
Qualification from their Champions League group is the first step and now City will look to top the group to ensure that they won’t face a European powerhouse such as Barcelona in the Round of 16 for the third year in a row.