Manchester City 3-0 Marseille
Manchester City beat Marseille at the Etihad tonight as Champions League Group C reached a conclusion with the Sky Blues top of the pile.
After they had dominated the first half, Ferran Torres gave City the lead before Sergio Aguero marked his return from injury with a goal and Raheem Sterling scored a late third.
The latest Champions League 2020 betting odds pitch the Sky Blues as second favourites to win the trophy, and the way they ripped up Group C, City have every chance.
Pep Guardiola made wholesale changes to his team, but with quality players in Phil Foden, Aymeric Laporte, Bernardo Silva and Fernandinho stepping in it was hardly a weak side. There was a start for USA international keeper Zak Steffen while Aguero started on the bench.
Marseille’s early Champions League 2020 results put them out of contention rather too quickly. Arguably they had more to play for tonight, with a Europa League place up for grabs but apart from a brief spell at the end of the first half, they were never really in it.
Highlights of the game
Despite having little at stake tonight, Manchester City clearly wanted to maintain their momentum and totally dominated the first half hour.
As the hosts camped out in the Marseille half the visitors’ keeper Steve Mandanda had an early save to make when Riyad Mahrez ran through on goal. Mandanda did his job well, spreading himself to stop the City striker.
Laporte met a cross from Ilkay Gundogan and flicked a header narrowly over and Foden took a pot shot from distance which flew wide.
Marseille eventually made a foray into the City half on 30 minutes, and Dimitri Payet had the ball in the net, finishing from a tight angle but he was offside.
Mahrez rolled a shot wide at the other end, but Marseille responded with an effort from Morgan Sanson. And Steffen was called into action to stop an angled drive from Pape Gueye
The Sky Blues came into the game with a run of four consecutive clean sheets and they were halfway to a fifth, but at least Marseille had emerged from their shell in the latter stages of the first half.
But City opened the second half as they did the first and were ahead within three minutes. Again, it was Torres who broke the deadlock with his fourth Champions League goal.
Silva started the move with a pass to Mahrez, and when his ball reached Torres, the Spaniard finished with ease.
The Sky Blues were in the ascendancy again and Foden fired a shot at Mandanda, and then Kyle Walker stung the keeper’s hands with a ferocious drive.
Sergio Aguero came on, midway through the second half, a sight City fans have been waiting for, but not one Mandanda looked forward to. And the Marseille keeper was picking the ball out of the net when Aguero pounced after Mandanda had partly cleared a City corner.
Sterling added a third, on 90 minutes, and this time Mandanda was unlucky after he made a good save only to see the rebound land perfectly for the City striker.
Key statistics
Manchester City have kept a clean sheet in five consecutive Champions League games; the last side to achieve that feat was Juventus in 2016/17.
The Sky Blues only conceded once in Group C, against Porto, and only Chelsea can match that defensive record in this campaign.
It was always going to be an uphill battle for Marseille, who have only one of their last 13 games away to English sides in Europe, and that was against Liverpool in 2007.
What’s next?
Manchester City are back in Premier League action on Saturday night in one of the big fixtures of the year, the Manchester Derby at Old Trafford. It’s a game the Sky Blues need to win to continue their climb up the table. Here at SBOTOP we’ll be all over the clash with pre-match news and betting tips; and then a report on all the action.
The Red Devils have made a habit of starting badly in recent games. Against West Ham last weekend they could have been three down by half-time, but at 1-0 they saw a way back and another inspired display by Bruno Fernandes led them to a 3-1 victory.
But having been outplayed in the first half of their Champions League decider with Red Bull Leipzig, a 2-0 deficit was too much to claw back and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team is heading for the Europa League.
Over in Ligue 1 there’s a huge clash too when Marseille host Monaco. It’s fourth against fifth with the hosts trying to make it six league wins on the bounce, while Monaco look to return to winning ways after their four-match winning run was ended by a 2-1 defeat away to Lille last week. Monaco can leapfrog Andre Villas-Boas’ team with a victory.
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