City finish off Basle in 23 minutes News

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City finish off Basle in 23 minutes

By Daily Sports on February 14, 2018

Manchester City effectively killed off their Champions League tie against FC Basle after 23 minutes on Tuesday, flattening the Swiss champions with three quickfire goals on their way to a 4-0 away win.

Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Sergio Aguero scored within nine minutes of each other in the last 16 first leg tie to almost certainly extend Basle's wait for a first quarterfinal appearance in the competition.

Gundogan curled in the fourth from the edge of the area in the 53rd minute as the runaway English Premier League leaders clocked up another emphatic win in their remarkable season.

Basle did their best to make a game of it and created several openings but looked vulnerable every time City attacked.

City, who have lost in three of their previous four appearances at this stage of the competition, enjoyed the lion's share of the possession with 69 percent, although that was still unremarkable by their standards.

"It's an amazing result," said City coach Pep Guardiola. "The tie is 180 minutes but we are almost there. We defended quite well, we were clinical. It's not easy to keep the level but we did it."

Despite the scoreline, City had 12 shots to Basle's 11 and the Swiss could have taken an early lead.

Dimitri Oberlin got clear of City's defence and tried to poke the ball past Ederson as the Brazilian rushed out of his area but got no power on the ball allowing Kyle Walker to clear easily.

Oberlin also had a penalty appeal turned down as he went over under a challenge from Nicolas Otamendi. © Reuters

•Photo shows Pep Guardiola.

Source Daily Sports

Posted February 14, 2018