City cruise past Galatasaray to seal top eight Champions League spot | OneFootball

Manchester City are through to the Round of 16 of the Champions League after a 2-0 win over Galatasaray at the Etihad Stadium.

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Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki got the goals for an inspired City side in what was a dominant display against the Turkish giants.

It means we end the league phase in eighth position with 16 points and will therefore skip next month’s play-off round.

The only sour note for the Blues was the first-half withdrawal of Jeremy Doku after the Belgian had been the game’s outstanding player in the opening half an hour.

The game in 250 words

Knowing a victory was all but essential if we were to make the top eight, City set out on the front foot.

So much so, Erling Haaland was inches away from the opener less than three minutes in – nodding Rayan Ait-Nouri’s wicked cross just wide.

The Norwegian was not to be perturbed though, latching on to an exquisite Jeremy Doku through ball in the 10th minute and chipping over the advancing Ugurcan Cakir in the Galatasaray goal.

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Despite our domination, one was never going to be enough to allow all of a City persuasion to relax.

Fortunately, it was two before the half hour mark as Rayan Cherki received Doku’s pass around 12 yards out and picked his spot.

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Doku, the game’s outstanding player early on, was then forced to come off in the 36th minute after a collision with Galatasaray’s Davinson Sanchez.

Although our visitors were more of a threat in the second period, Gianluigi Donnarumma was equal to Victor Osimhen’s efforts.

Meanwhile, Omar Marmoush, Phil Foden and Tijjani Reijnders were all denied from chances of their own to put City out of sight.

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With the travelling Turkish support typically loud before kick-off, the home crowd were more than a match – emphatically answering Pep Guardiola’s rallying cry ahead of the game.

Our job complete, all we could do was wait for news from elsewhere, with Benfica’s win over Real Madrid confirming our top eight spot.

Teams

CITY XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Khusanov, Ake, Ait-Nouri, Bernardo (C), O’Reilly, Marmoush (Reijnders 67), Cherki (Nico 82), Doku (Foden 36), Haaland

Subs: Trafford, Bettinelli,, Gray, Mukasa, Alleyne, Lewis, Mfuni

GALATASARAY XI: Ugurcan, Sallai, Sanchez, Abdulkerim, Jakobs, Gundogan (C) (Akgun 67), Lemina, Sara (Icardi 86), Sane (Ayhan 80), Yilmaz (Torreira 68), Osimhen

Subs: Sen, Guvenc, Elmail, Kutucu, Kahraman, Karasu, Kocak, Singo

Player of the match

Rayan Cherki - The French playmaker ran the show all evening.

His maiden season at City continues to get better and better with almost every passing performance as he grows into a crucial role at the Etihad.

His composure was typified with a beautiful finish for the second, while his defensive work rate should also not be ignored.

A special player that the Etihad already adores.

Pep’s reaction

“A lot of things to improve. We’re really pleased to finish top eight considering how the Champions League has become.

“When I start 16 or 17 years ago, qualification was not as difficult. Today, every team is really, really tough.

“Really pleased to not play one knockout stage and hopefully we can arrive in March in our best.”

Cherki reaction

“I’m very proud because Galatasaray are a very good team.

“We played a good game and we won, that is very important for us.

“All the players love when the manager does this system because we have a lot of players inside.

“I play for a top club and I’m very happy to be here.”

Returning heroes

Once a blue, always a blue.

The Etihad was ecstatic to see former favourites Ilkay Gundogan and Leroy Sane back on our hallowed turf.

Gundogan, Pep’s first signing at City, captained us to the most incredible season in our 132-year history, winning the European Treble in 2022/23.

Sane’s electric pace was vital to the early successes under Guardiola before his departure in 2020.

Just like Kevin De Bruyne with Napoli at the very start of this Champions League campaign, the home support made sure their appreciation for sparkling contributions to a golden era was known.

400 up for Pep

The boss has reached 400 wins as City boss in just 569 games!

That shatters the previous record by a manager of an English side, which was held by Arsene Wenger – taking 696 matches to hit the tally.

Alex Ferguson was in charge of 732 Manchester United games before reaching 400 victories, taking 163 more than Pep to get to the figure.

Another example of Pep’s astounding standards since arriving at the Etihad.

It’s worth noting this figure doesn’t include penalty shootout wins, which are considered draws by leading statisticians Opta.

What it means

City finish in the top eight of the Champions League table and therefore skip February’s play-off round.

With 16 points from eight matches, we end this stage of the competition in eighth position.

We’ll await the draw on Friday 27 February to discover our opponents in the Round of 16 and our potential route to the final in Budapest.

However, we do already know that it will be one of Benfica, Bodo/Glimt, Inter or Real Madrid standing between us and the quarter-finals.

View full table

What’s next

City head to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League for 16:30 (UK) kick-off on Sunday 1 February.

After a difficult run of trips to the north London ground following its opening, we’ve won on our last three trips – including two league outings and an FA Cup tie.

As always, we’ll have full coverage across mancity.com and our official app.

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