Dinamo Zagreb 1, Manchester City 4
Phil Foden scored on his 50th appearance for Manchester City as they comfortably beat Dinamo Zagreb away in a dead rubber Champions League game.
Embed from Getty ImagesHis achievement stood alongside Gabriel Jesus’ second Champions League hat trick for the club as the Blues came back from a goal down in Croatia to knock their hosts out of Europe.
A win for Atalanta against Shakhtar Donetsk in the other group game meant that the Croats finished bottom of the group having missed a chance to qualify themselves.
City boss Pep Guardiola made eight changes from the side that lost the Manchester derby last weekend and they sluggishly – going 1-0 down early to an a cross by Damian Kadzior which was converted by Dani Olmo on the volley.
Defensive alarm bells were ringing for City who have now not kept a clean sheet in ten consecutive games.
But the Blues hit back through Gabriel Jesus who levelled matters in the 34th minute after nodding in a Riyad Mahrez cross into the top corner.
City effectively won the tie less than 10 minutes after the break after Jesus completed his hat trick with two more goals in 4 minutes.
The Brazilian put City into the lead after exchanging passes with Foden in the 50th minute.
And Benjamin Mendy put in the kind of cross that City have been missing since early last season to hand Jesus a tap-in at the back post 4 minutes later.
Foden rounded off a comfortable victory 6 minutes from the end after converting Bernardo Silva’s cross.
The game was marred by an incident in which a dangerous looking deliberate elbow on Rodri – the midfielder was taken off later in the game but VAR was not used for a second opinion on the incident.
MATCH STATS – Dinamo Zagreb 1, Manchester City 4
Dinamo Zagreb: Livakovic, Stojanovic, Ademi, Dilaver, Moubandje, Kadzior (Gjira 59), Moro, Gojak (Majer 81), Orsic (Hajrovic 81), Olmo, Petkovic
Dinamo Zagreb Subs not used: Zagorac, Gavranovic, Situm, Ivanusec
Man City: Bravo, Cancelo, Otamendi (Haywood-Bellis 82), Garcia, Mendy, Gundogan, Rodri (Sterling 73), Foden, Mahrez, Jesus (Zinchenko 66), Bernardo Silva
Man City Subs not used: Carson, Walker, Angelino, De Bruyne