Sevilla 1-3 Manchester City: Citizens qualify for last 16
Manchester City qualified for the last 16 of the
UEFA Champions League on Tuesday as they
beat Sevilla 3-1 away from home. City raced
into a 2-0 lead with goals from Raheem Sterling
and Fernandinho but Sevilla came storming back
with Benoit Tremoulinas pulling one back.
Before a frantic half time ended Wilfried Bony
restored City’s two-goal lead and Sevilla
struggled to get back into the game as City
could have won by a more comfortable margin.
With the win City sealed qualification to the
knockout stages with two Group D games
remaining, as Manuel Pellegrini has now guided
them past the group stage in each of his three
seasons in charge. City sit top of Group D on
nine points, while Juventus are on eight points
in second place and are the only team who can
catch City.
Just eight minutes into the game Fernandinho
slotted in Sterling superbly and the English
winger coolly finished to put City 1-0 up. Just
three minutes later City had doubled their lead
with Fernandinho this time providing the
finishing touch to make it 2-0. Sterling again got
in down the left and his cross found Bony who
had his shot saved but the ball bounced up to
Fernandinho who headed home.
Sevilla pulled one back in the 25th minute as
Coke steamed past Nicolas Otamendi and
clipped the ball to the back post
where Tremoulinas headed home into an empty
net. 2-1 and City’s defensive lapses continued
as they have now only kept three clean sheets
in their last 32 European games. Soon after
Sevilla were almost level as Joe Hart pulled off
a magnificent save at his near post from
Timothee Kolodziejczak’s header and the follow
up was slammed into the side-netting
by Vicente Iborra.
After dominating the early stages, City were
struggling but before the break they restored
their two goal advantage as Hart sprung a quick
counter-attack from a Sevilla corner to
find Jesus Navas on the right flank and his cut
back was slotted home by Bony for this first
Champions League goal. 3-1
In the second half Sevilla came flying out of the
traps and tried to pin City back but the Citizens
defended resolutely and looked dangerous on
the counter with Sterling causing problems and
Fernandinho getting a shot on target which was
well saved. Sterling again caused problems with
his pace on the break moments later and feed
the ball to Bony but his shot went just wide.
As the game played out Sterling continued to be
a thorn in the backside of Sevilla’s defense and
his ball found Yaya Toure when first played a
one-two with Bony and then curled an effort
inches wide of the post. Bony almost added
another goal late on as the Ivorian could have
had a hat trick on another night.
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