Pep Guardiola asked his Manchester City players to forget their previous Champions League failures in the quarter-finals with a 2–0 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach on Tuesday, which sealed a 4–0 aggregate victory. The Champions League is a trophy that remains elusive for Guardiola during his five years with City in Manchester which never finished ahead of the final eight under the Catalans. But runaway Premier League leaders will have a chance to break that barrier next month as they show why the bookies are favorites for the competition with another classy performance in Budapest due to a tie between travel due to a coronovirus ban England and Germany host both legs of.
Early goals by Kevin de Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan killed any hope of a comeback from the Germans as City recorded their 24th win in their last 25 matches in all competitions.
“What happened in the past is past. Guardiola has been unable to replicate that success with Bayern Munich or City, who won the Champions League twice as Barcelona coach,” Guardiola said.
“A bad game in the quarter-finals, (some) bad minutes can punish you.
“Now these are the best teams in Europe. Every time the quality is high and hopefully we can maintain this mood.”
De Bruyne and Gundogan were the two hosts of the first team left by Guardiola for a 3–0 win at Fulham on Saturday, and City looked refreshed at the start.
De Bruyne blasted in the opener from outside the box from under the bar on 12 minutes.
Six minutes later a drifting move from the front saw Phil Foden scoring his 15th goal of the season, releasing Gundogan behind the Gladbach defense.
“The beginning obviously helps a lot,” de Bruyne said. “We were patient in the beginning and then scoring two goals gave us a little cover knowing they needed to come out a little bit more. I think we controlled the game.”
Gladbach has now lost all seven games as manager Marco Rose announced that he would leave the club at the end of the season to join Borussia Dortmund.
Rock solid city
The defensive offense has been the reason for City’s exit under former Champions League Guardiola.
He gave Monaco six goals on two legs in 2017, five a year after Liverpool, four in 2019 to Tottenham and a 3–1 loss last season to Lisbon.
However, the signing of Ruben Dias turned Guardiola’s men into a full squad this season, as they remain on the course for an unprecedented fours in the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup.
City have now kept the clean sheet for seven consecutive Champions League.
“We can’t make Reuben and John (Stones) an incredible move for the team,” Guardiola said.
“But we need everyone. Everyone makes a lot of runs, the important thing is to defend with the ball.”
With no key player missing through injury, Guardiola has another reason for the money to choose from, this could eventually be City’s year for a major breakthrough in Europe.
Promoted
Fernandinho, Olecandra Zinchenko, Aymeric LaPorte, Sergio Aguero and Rahim Sterling were relegated by Dias, João Canso, Gundogan, Rodrigo and Bernardo Silva the night before Saturday’s trip to the FA Cup quarter. -Finals
By then City will know their next Champions League opponents. In this form, they are the side to survive in Friday’s quarter-final draw.
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