Erling Haaland on Tuesday scored his 45th goal of the season as Manchester City took a commanding 3-0 lead over Bayern Munich in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie.
Rodri and Bernardo Silva were also on target for the English champions, who took a giant stride toward finally conquering Europe for the first time.
Victory was sweet for City manager Pep Guardiola as he came up against his former club for the first time since leaving Bayern for Manchester in 2016, but he said that the job is not yet done.
Photo: AP
“I’ve been three years there, and I know in Europe this team is special. To knock out these type of teams you have to make two good games not just one,” Guardiola said.
“I know exactly what we have to do there, They are capable to score one, two, three goals. We have to do our game with huge personality,” he said.
City also partially settled a Champions League score with Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel, who beat Guardiola’s men to lift the trophy as Chelsea manager in the 2020-2021 final.
Tuchel was appointed less than three weeks ago by the German champions with one eye on this tie, and he believed his side deserved more.
“I try to not allow my players to focus on the result, because it is not the deserved result, it does not tell the story of this match,” Tuchel said.
“I’ve seen so many good things that I refuse to just focus on the result. You may say: ‘That’s not Bayern,’ but I was very proud on the sideline, we were courageous and showed the right character,” he said.
City fought off interest from Bayern among other European giants to win the race to sign Haaland a year ago for nights like this, and the Norwegian played his part in a clinical performance.
Haaland uncharacteristically fluffed his lines with the first big chance of the game when he sent a weak shot straight at goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
At the other end, City were grateful for a brilliant block from Ruben Dias to prevent Jamal Musiala putting Bayern in front.
Rodri then showed the forwards how it is done, as the Spaniard took aim from long range on his weaker left foot and curled a sumptuous shot into the top corner on 27 minutes.
Bayern picked up Sommer in the January window as an emergency measure after Manuel Neuer’s season was ended by a skiing accident.
The Swiss international proved the value of that move with a number of vital saves to keep Bayern in the tie, starting with an outstretched leg to deny Ilkay Gundogan, but Bayern were made to regret not making their bright start to the second period count.
Leroy Sane twice came close to haunting his former club with powerful efforts that were beaten away by Ederson, before Matthijs de Ligt and Kingsley Coman had headers from close range blocked by desperate City defending.
City turned the screw in the final quarter to take a potentially decisive lead to Bavaria next week.
Haaland showed there is more to his game than goals with a perfectly weighted cross for Silva to head in City’s second 20 minutes from time.
Sommer then produced a fine stop low to his left to turn Julian Alvarez’s shot to safety, but City were not to be denied their third and Haaland got his goal as he stretched out a telescopic right leg to turn John Stones’ knockdown beyond Sommer.
Alvarez fired another effort just wide and Sommer needed finger tips to turn over Rodri’s header as City went in search of a final flourish.
In Tuesday’s other game, Inter put one foot into the Champions League semi-finals with a comfortable 2-0 win at SL Benfica, with Nicolo Barella and Romelu Lukaku netting in Lisbon.
The Italians, three-time winners, took a commanding quarter-final first-leg lead at the Estadio da Luz, inflicting Benfica’s first defeat in the competition.
“It’s been one of our best games this season,” Inter midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan told British broadcaster BT Sport. “We were dominating all over the pitch. We were doubling up and were everywhere, helping each other and we got [rewarded] for it.”
“We’ve done a great job, but it’s still not over, we still have to face them in a week and we know it’s not going to be easy,” Mkhitaryan added.
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