3 Key Takeaways: Citizens Blow By Steaua 5-0 in UCL First Leg
By Larry Henry
After a 2-1 victory in their Barclays Premier League Opener vs Sunderland on Saturday, Manchester City switched their mindset to the UEFA Champions League Playoff Round first leg at Steaua Bucharest.
Pep Guardiola‘s side traveled to Bucharest to face the Romanian-side in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League playoff round. Bucharest advanced to the playoff round after eliminated Sparta Praha in the previous round.
Guardiola kept the front six the same from Saturday’s victory, but had Nicolas Otamendi and Pablo Zabaleta come into the back-line for Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna. Willy Caballero got the starting nod in-goal, further bringing up speculation about Joe Hart‘s future with the club.
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The match got off to a cracking start as Raheem Sterling drew a penalty from Bucharest defender Sulley Muniru in the seventh minute. However, Sergio Aguero‘s spot kick was saved by keeper Florin Nita. Nolito tried to hit the rebound in, but his shot went off the crossbar.
David Silva gave City a 1-0 advantage five minutes later when he hammered home from inside the box. Sterling played a great ball to the Spaniard who left Nita flat-footed.
Aguero would have a second chance to score from the spot, in the 20th minute when Aleksandar Kolarov was fouled this time in the box by Gabriel Enache. This time, Aguero soared the kick over the ball and the score stayed 1-0.
Kolarov, almost extended the lead to 2-0 after 39 minutes when his volley also went off the crossbar.
Two minutes later, Aguero finally got off and running as he slotted a shot into the bottom right corner for a 2-0 City lead just before halftime. Sterling earned his second assist of the evening.
The Second Half
Nolito gave City a 3-0 advantage four minutes into the second half, as he rounded Nita and tapped home easily. Kevin De Bruyne played the perfect through-ball for the Spaniard.
In the 78th minute, Aguero doubled his tally after Nolito’s assist was shot into the bottom left corner for a 4-0 lead. Eleven minutes later, Aguero’s evening got even better as he capped off his hat-trick with a right footed shot into the bottom left corner for a 5-0 lead. Fernandinho was credited with the final assist of the evening.
At the final whistle, Guardiola’s side had a 5-0 aggregate to take back to the Etihad Stadium for the second leg next Wednesday. It may not have started pretty for Sergio Aguero, but he was able to keep his confidence and scores three more goals for the club.
City led in possession 70%-30%, while forcing seven saves out of Florin Nita. Willy Caballero made two saves of his own in the clean sheet. Overall, it was a dominating performance by the Citizens away from home in a tough atmosphere.
Three Key Takeaways:
Here are three things I learned from tonight’s victory.
1) Raheem Sterling finally playing with confidence!
After a tough showing in the EURO’s and at some points last season, Sterling has played fairly well the first two matches this season. He earned a penalty vs Sunderland on Saturday and did the same tonight as well. His pace seemed to cause a lot of problems for the Steaua defenders, and he earned two assists as well. If this keeps up, Sterling could see his stock grow in Guardiola’s plans.
2) Back-line looked as comfortable as can be.
Granted Steaua really didn’t have many efforts on offense, the back-line seemed to gel together well. With Stones partnered with Otamendi, a valuable partnership is beginning to form. After featuring at center-back on the weekend, Kolarov returned to his usual left-back spot, with Zabaleta starting at right-back. The two full-backs each picked up a yellow card, but were substituted late in the match as a precaution. I feel if we get the same effort from the defenders, then City’s defensive problems could be over.
3) It was huge that Aguero picked himself after two PK misses.
The usual saying goes, ” It’s not about how you start, but how you finish.” This was true tonight as Sergio Aguero was easily the man of the match after missing two early penalty kicks. Even though he scored at the weekend, Guardiola stuck with him even after his first miss, which was saved. Maybe going forward, David Silva or Kevin De Bruyne should get cracks at penalty kicks as well. Aguero is deadly from a number of ways and that was shown on each of his three goals. He now has four goals in two matches so far this campaign, and should look to keep that rate increasing.
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According to BBC Sport, Manchester City’s plane was evacuated before departure due to smoke being seen in the cabin. This didn’t seem to affect the squad on the pitch, and it will definitely take a huge collapse for City not to advance to the group-stage.
Up next is a league match at Stoke City on Saturday, before they host Steaua in the second leg next Wednesday.