Manchester City cruised past Copenhagen in the Champions League on Wednesday night, putting the Danes to the sword at the Etihad Stadium with a 3-1 second leg win.
Early goals from Manuel Akanji and Julian Alvarez effectively killed off the tie barely any sooner than the game had kicked off. Mohamed Elyounoussi did pull a high quality goal back, but Erling Haaland ensured City made it eight consecutive games with three goals in Europe this season.
Pep Guardiola’s side had none of the trouble that neighbours Manchester United experienced with Copenhagen in the group stage, and with a solid chunk of the work already done in the first leg in Denmark last month anyway, cup holders City now take up their place in the quarter-final draw.
How the game unfolded
After dominating the ball for the first five minutes, it was one attempt, one goal for City, as Akanji met Alvarez’s corner to impressively volley in with his right foot and immediately extinguished any already faint hope that Copenhagen might have had about mounting an aggregate comeback.
That early pressure continued, although there was a slice of fortune about City’s ninth-minute second. Alvarez almost registered his second corner assist as Rodri’s header struck the crossbar, with the ball making its way back out to the Argentine on the left. He cut inside and shot from wide, watching the ball slip through the grasp of ex-Liverpool goalkeeper Kamil Grabara.
There was a slight bump in the road when Elyounoussi cut into that sizeable overall lead with what was actually a very good goal, the former Southampton winger exchanging a sharp one-two with striker Orri Oskarsson that the teenager skilfully backheeled into his path to finish.
But the four-goal aggregate margin was restored when Haaland drew level with Sergio Aguero’s tally Champions League, with his 41st in the competition on the stroke of half-time. The Norwegian found a pocket of space between defenders to receive Rodri’s diagonal ball and then wrongfoot Grabara.
Copenhagen continued to make a go of it in the second half – the travelling support certainly never lost their voice – but there seemed to be an underlying acceptance that the tie was over as a contest. There was certainly little reason for City to keep exerting themselves in that sense, given that they face an enormously important trip to Liverpool at the weekend.
Substitutions from each manager also disrupted the flow and ultimately the remainder of the game saw little in the way of…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at 90min EN…