Manchester City 2 Galatasaray 0: match reportCity qualify for the round of 16 after narrowly securing a space in the top 8 with 2-goal victory against Galatasaray
Manchester City defeated Galatasaray 2-0 to automatically qualify for the Round of 16 of the Champions League for the first time in the new format. The Blues beat Wolves 2-0 at the weekend and were looking for another win to continue their return to winning ways. Donnarumma started in goal. Nunes, Ake, Khusanov, and Ait-Nouri were the back four. O’Reilly, Bernardo, and Doku were in midfield with Rodri serving a one game suspension as a result of his second yellow card in the match against Bodo/Glimt. Cherki, Marmoush, and Haaland were in attack.
City controlled the game well and had a fantastic first half of the game. The first big chance came in just the third minute when Ait Nouri ran down the left and put a brilliant cross into Haaland who looked certain to bury a header, but it was put wide by the striker.
Haaland would soon redeem himself in the 11th minute however, taking advantage of a brilliant ball forward from Doku to put him 1v1 with the goalkeeper and with a chip into the net, the Blues had the lead early. Just what they needed in their pursuit of top 8. City did not back down and continued to go for more goals. O’Reilly had a shot from distance that was turned away by the goalkeeper.
In the 23rd minute, the Blues doubled their lead when Doku once again troubling the defence had the ball in the box and passed it to Cherki, who took a shot straight into the bottom left corner to make it 2-0.
In the 36th minute, Doku was down with a knock and signalled to the bench. He could not continue and was replaced by Foden. On the edge of half-time, City almost had three, but Foden’s shot at the near post was wide off Ait-Nouri’s pass.
In the second half, similarly to the game at the weekend, there was no shortage of opportunities for the Blues, but they could not kill the game off. Marmoush had a clear shot on goal but couldn’t quite get it off and it went straight to the goalkeeper. Haaland attempted to play Reijnders in but was unsuccessful and in one instance, Reijnders was 1v1 with the goalkeeper and surely should’ve had a shot, but he overcooked his run and was left frustrated.
Galatasaray themselves had a few decent opportunities with Oshimen having a very good chance on goal that was well saved by Donnarumma, as well as some corners troubling the City defence but ultimately, the Blues held on for the 2-0 victory.
Elsewhere, Real Madrid were defeated 4-2 by Benfica which ensured they dropped out of the top 8 and meant City qualified automatically for the last 16 in 8th place. The Blues will now be able to deal without the two extra games in February and gives them more chances to rest players between games, with injury problems still looming over their heads, with Doku being the most recent knock last night. They face Spurs away this Sunday in what will be a crucial fixture in the title challenge.
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