Early goals end contest as Man City stroll past Copenhagen and into quarter-finals
Champions League Round of 16: Manchester City 3 Copenhagen 1 (6-2 on aggregate)
THEY march on undaunted, although Pep Guardiola did not need anyone to tell him that this romp to the quarter-finals of the Champions League at the Etihad was merely the hors d’oeuvres to Sunday’s main course at Anfield for his Manchester City side.
Liverpool, it is safe to assume, will offer them far more of a challenge than Copenhagen could muster as City stretched their unbeaten home record in the Champions League to 30 games, 28 of them wins.
But there were many positive pointers for Guardiola, not least Erling Haaland whose goal, late in the first half, took his astonishing career tally in the competition to 41 goals in 37 appearances.
A night that always promised to be routine was assuredly so once City had raced into a two-goal lead with less than 10 minutes on the clock.
After a 3-1 first-leg win in Denmark had all but ended the last 16 tie as a competition, Guardiola could afford to make seven changes from the weekend derby win, with his gaze very much on Sunday’s title clash.
But even his shadow team was going to be more than enough to stretch City’s unbeaten run in the Champions League to 20 games.
After just five minutes of relentless City possession, Julian Alvarez’s right-wing corner picked out Manuel Akanji ten yards out and the Swiss defender volleyed a perfect finish past former Liverpool keeper Kamil Grabara from 10 yards.
Oscar Bobb’s excellent run ended in a blocked shot before Rodri headed against the bar, from another corner on nine minutes, and, with the visitors failing to clear the danger, Alvarez’s shot from just outside the area forced a horrendous error out of the keeper.
The ball was aimed directly at Grabara
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