UEFA Champions League
Slick Man City close to Champions League last 16 place after Brugge rout
Manchester City got back on track as they thrashed Club Brugge 4-1 on Wednesday (Nov 3) to move within touching distance of a place in the Champions League last 16.
Pep Guardiola’s side recovered from the shock of conceding a John Stones own goal after Phil Foden’s early opener at the Etihad Stadium.
Riyad Mahrez put City back in front in the second half and Raheem Sterling came off the bench to end his goal drought before Gabriel Jesus capped the rout.
City sit top of Group A, one point above Paris Saint Germain, after their third win in four matches in the competition.
Last season’s Champions League runners-up are five points clear of third-placed Brugge and will reach the knockout stages with one point from their last two games against PSG and Leipzig.
“Fully deserved. I liked how we played. After conceding we dropped a little bit, but the second half was really good,” Guardiola said.
“When you’re at Manchester City, you realise nobody will help you. Everything to do, we’ve done it.
“All the titles I won before were because I was at big clubs. Absolutely, the pleasure is higher (to win with City).” After a strong start to the season, City had suffered their worst period of the campaign.
Saturday’s shock home defeat against Crystal Palace came hot on the heels of a penalty shoot-out loss at West Ham that ended their four-year reign as League Cup holders.
Guardiola responded to those setbacks by defiantly claiming City were playing at an “incredible” level, labelling their current form among the “best moments” of his time at the club.
Having thrashed Brugge 5-1 in Belgium last month, City once again picked on Philippe Clement’s team, although the victory wasn’t without a few scares.
Guardiola had described Brugge’s visit as “much more important” than Saturday’s derby at Manchester United and his players got the message.
Constant menace
Kevin De Bruyne’s inconsistent form of late has been a concern, so it was intriguing to see Guardiola drop the Belgian midfielder.
Even without De Bruyne, City had too much attacking quality for Brugge.
Joao Cancelo was a constant menace and the left-back was inches away from scoring with a curling effort that cannoned off the post.
City’s relentless pressure was rewarded in the 15th minute after Foden’s initial cross-shot was blocked by Brugge keeper Simon Mignolet.
Mahrez pounced on the loose ball and jinked across the Brugge area before picking out Cancelo, whose cross found Foden narrowly onside to tap-in his fifth goal this season.
But despite their dominant start, City were rocked as Brugge equalised in freakish circumstances two minutes later.
Hans Vanaken’s shot was clawed away by Ederson and when Charles De Ketelaere crossed back into the six-yard box, Bernardo Silva’s attempted block deflected the ball off Stones’ face and into the net.
That shock knocked City out of their stride and they nearly conceded again when De Ketelaere’s low drive forced a good stop from Ederson.
Jack Grealish’s deft pass presented Mahrez with a golden opportunity early in the second half, but Mignolet saved the Algerian’s close-range strike.
Brugge threatened again when De Ketelaere’s shot crept wide.
But City had regained control and Mahrez made amends for his earlier miss as he restored their lead in the 54th minute.
Cancelo was the provider with a pin-point cross that the unmarked Mahrez headed past Mignolet from five yards for his eighth goal this season.
Sterling was introduced to replace Mahrez and the England star was quickly on the scoresheet for the first time since August.
In the 72nd minute, Foden found Ilkay Gundogan and the German’s low cross was converted with ease by Sterling for the forward’s second goal of a difficult season on a personal level.
Brazil forward Jesus put the seal on City’s victory when he netted in the final seconds.
-AFP
Spain’s LaLiga will be represented by at least five teams in the Champions League next season after Italy’s Lazio were eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday while Athletic Bilbao progressed to the semi-finals.
LaLiga earned the second of two European Performance Spots handed out by UEFA, which go to associations “with the best collective performance by their clubs” in UEFA competitions.
England’s Premier League was the first to secure an extra berth in Europe’s top competition, on top of the four granted to the top four teams in the domestic table.
Villarreal are fifth in the LaLiga standings, with 51 points from 30 matches.
They are three points ahead of sixth-placed Real Betis and eight in front of Celta Vigo and Mallorca, with all three clubs having played one more game than Villarreal.
-Reuters
Real Madrid’s record-breaking manager Carlo Ancelotti had no complaints after his side’s Champions League reign was ended in emphatic fashion by Arsenal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Italian Ancelotti won a record-extending fifth Champions League trophy last season as Real beat Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but his side went down 2-1 at home to Arsenal for a crushing 5-1 aggregate defeat.
“There are two sides to football, the happy part that has happened to us many times and the sad part we have to handle in the same way. It has happened to us fewer times than to other teams, but we have to manage it because it allows us to be better in the next games.”
When Real keeper Thibaut Courtois saved Bukayo Saka’s early penalty and minutes later Real were awarded a spot kick for a push by Declan Rice on Kylian Mbappe, it seemed that the great escape might still be a possibility.
But Real’s penalty was overturned after a lengthy VAR check, and in truth, they never looked remotely threatening as their bid for a 16th European Cup crown ended in feeble fashion.
“To change the dynamic, we needed something positive, like the penalty he whistled and then took off. We needed something to have more confidence, but we were not able to change the dynamic of the first leg,” Ancelotti said.
Despite the defeat, Ancelotti said Real’s season still has plenty of possibilities, not least trying to bridge a four-point gap to La Liga leaders Barcelona.
“Now we are in the fight for La Liga. We have a disadvantage, but we have the Barcelona game, we have the Copa del Rey final, the Club World Cup, and we have to manage this part, which is another part of football that we are not used to,” he said.
“It’s time to hold our heads high and learn from our mistakes. It’s sad today, but I have absolutely no worries about how my players will respond. We’ll fight on, we’ll learn from the experience, and we’ll try to be better for the next match.”
-Reuters
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Arsenal snuffed out any chance of a famous Real Madrid comeback to reach the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-1 victory in the Bernabeu Stadium completed a 5-1 aggregate win on Wednesday.
Holders and 15-time winners Real never looked like clawing back a 3-0 deficit from last week’s quarter-final first leg, and when Bukayo Saka scored for the visitors in the 65th minute, their fate was effectively sealed.
Vinicius Junior seized on a rare defensive slip a couple of minutes later to rouse the home crowd, but it proved too little too late as Carlo Ancelotti’s side exited feebly.
Arsenal’s superiority over the two legs was underlined in stoppage time as Gabriel Martinelli burst through to score.
They will face Paris St Germain in their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.
“I think it’s such a special night for this club, it’s a historic night for this club,” said Arsenal’s Declan Rice, whose two sublime free kicks put his side in control last week.
“There was a lot of talk coming in about them coming back from the dead, they’ve done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.”
A cacophony of noise greeted kickoff with the home fans fuelled by the hope of witnessing what would have been one of the greatest Champions League comebacks.
But Real’s knack of extricating themselves from difficult positions in a competition they won six times in the previous 11 seasons deserted them as they were comprehensively outplayed.
“Did we fall short of what we wanted in pure football terms? Perhaps,” Real captain Lucas Vazquez said. “They really are terrifically organised defensively.”
PENALTY MISS
Real needed a storming start, and Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net in the opening minutes but was offside when chesting in a Vinicius cross.
Arsenal were in no mood to simply sit and protect their lead, though, and Saka forced a great save from Courtois. They were handed the chance to kill off the tie when Raul Asencio needlessly hauled down Mikel Merino from a corner, and referee Francois Letexier eventually awarded a penalty after checking a pitch-side VAR monitor.
Saka opted for a Panenka-style chipped penalty, and Courtois clawed away the ball.
It looked like a potentially pivotal moment, and when Letexier pointed to the penalty spot at the other end after Kylian Mbappe tumbled under minimal contact from Rice, Arsenal’s night looked like taking a turn for the worse.
After five painstaking minutes, however, Letexier was again invited by VAR to view the monitor and to a chorus of whistles from the home fans, overturned his original decision.
That scare aside, Arsenal coped easily with Real Madrid’s famed frontline who were given little to work with.
Arsenal keeper David Raya was not required to make a save before halftime as Real’s predilection for hopeful crosses into the area proved easy pickings for the visiting defence.
Real’s Mbappe barely had a sniff of a chance as Arsenal showed great control and Saka made up for his first-half miss with a clinical finish after being sent clear by Merino.
William Saliba gifted Real a lifeline when he was caught in possession on the edge of his area, allowing Vinicius to score, but there was never any sense of panic in the visiting ranks.
Martinelli put the icing on the cake in added time, again from a Merino assist, to send Arsenal’s fans into raptures.
-Reuters
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