M'gladbach vs Manchester City. UEFA Champions League First Knockout Round.
Puskas Arena.
Report as Pep Guardiola's men record their 19th straight win; Bernardo Silva and Gabriel Jesus punish Bundesliga side as City take command of Champions League last-16 tie
Thursday 25 February 2021 08:34, UK
Manchester City sent out a message to their Champions League rivals with a dominant 2-0 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach.
Although storming towards the Premier League title, City are missing the Champions League from their trophy cabinet as Pep Guardiola has yet to take them past the semi-finals, but his side are on course for a genuine tilt at this season's competition following a commanding display at the Puskas Arena.
Bernardo Silva opened the scoring with a clever header following a Joao Cancelo cross from the left before Gabriel Jesus bundled home the second after another header across goal from Bernardo.
It's now 19 wins in a row across all competitions for City, who go marching on across all fronts.
Guardiola decided not to start Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero after their recent fitness issues, naming both on the bench, but such are City's confidence levels there is no urgent need for either player.
They were comfortable and fluid from the outset in Budapest, fizzing the ball around and giving the German side little time on the ball.
The only frustration may have been the lack of clear-cut chances created, but Monchengladbach rarely looked capable of punishing them.
Phil Foden had their first serious opportunity with a low long-range shot that was saved by Yann Sommer while Raheem Sterling broke into the box only to be thwarted by a fine Ramy Bensebaini tackle.
City were given a warning when Stefan Lainer got behind the defence but his ball for Alassane Plea was cut out by Kyle Walker.
City felt they should have had a penalty when Sterling went down under a challenge from Bensebaini but nothing was given.
Walker's presence in the side at right-back meant the influential Cancelo was switched to the left and it was from the former Juventus man, who typically pushes into the midfield, the opener came after 29 minutes.
Monchengladbach gave the ball away from the edge of the area and almost invited Cancelo to run at them. He first headed left but then cut inside and delivered a superb curling cross to the back post where Silva rose to head past Sommer.
Cancelo threatened a second as he flashed a shot over the bar and Foden also missed the target while Matthias Ginter made a timely intervention to cut out a Walker cross.
City's dominance continued after the break and Jesus should have scored the second after an error by Bensebaini but the left-back recovered to tackle the Brazilian.
There was an awkward moment when, out of the blue, Plea managed to flick a shot narrowly wide of City's goal with his back towards goalkeeper Ederson but it was a rare opportunity.
City responded immediately and doubled their lead after 65 minutes, with Cancelo and Silva again combining, this time to tee up Jesus.
Cancelo picked out Silva with another deep cross but this time his fellow Portuguese headed back across for Jesus to slide in and apply the finishing touch.
Is there a better full-back in terms of playing the right ball at the right time? His development under Pep Guardiola has been pretty astonishing this season, revelling in a tucked-in position off the right or the left as seen here. With the ball he's a central midfielder and without it he's a full-back. It's proving a difficult role for opposition players to stop. And he was at his brilliant best with the ball, playing a huge part in both goals. First grabbing the assist for Silva with a quality cross and repeating the feat for the second goal as Silva found Jesus with a header.
Man City boss Pep Guardiola: "In this competition we have many chances and we have to be more clinical.
"In general the performance was good: we controlled the game, unfortunately today we were not clinical enough up front.
"It is something we have to improve in this competition.
"When I see Bayern Munich yesterday I would not think think so.
"My target is just West Ham (on Saturday). If the people say that we have to accept that, it is no problem, we accept it."
