Record-breaking City too strong for Gladbach

Men's Team

Fulham trip altered for live TV coverage

Pep Guardiola’s side were in imperious form once again at the Puskas Arena in Budapest as we racked up a 19th consecutive win – and created English top-flight history by chalking up a 12th straight away victory.

Cohesive and full of confidence, City’s fluid, flexible approach and constant movement saw us dominate possession and impose our game on the Bundesliga side throughout.

And our dominance was duly rewarded just before the half hour as Bernardo Silva rose to head home in emphatic style from a stunning, curling cross by Portuguese compatriot Joao Cancelo.

The left back, whose roaming caused Gladbach headaches all evening, intercepted possession wide on the left flank before cutting inside and spotted Bernardo drifting into space on the right edge of the six-yard box.

His pin-point delivery was met by the onrushing Bernardo who superbly guided the ball beyond the grasp of Gladbach keeper Yann Sommer for his 35th City career goal – but only the third with his head.

Gabriel Jesus had an opportunity to double our advantage on 53 minutes after latching onto a wayward back pass but was denied by a last-ditch Nico Elvedi tackle.

Gladbach almost made City pay for that miss with a rare attack when Alessane Plea delivered an audacious back flick which had Ederson scrambling.

Men's Team

City set new top-flight English record with 12th successive away win

But City would not be denied and Jesus made no mistake on 64 minutes after another brilliant delivery by that man Cancelo.

A wonderful cross picked out Bernardo on the right edge of the box and Silva headed into the centre of the box where the onrushing Jesus showed great awareness to finish.

Record-breaking City

The dizzying array of numbers and statistics continue to stack up for Pep Guardiola’s squad.

It’s now 26 matches unbeaten, with our last defeat coming in late November away at Tottenham, and 19 victories in a row.

Since then, we’ve won 23 and drawn 3, scoring 61 and conceding just seven.

And tonight’s latest success saw City create yet more history as we created a new top-flight English record for consecutive away victories.

This was our 12th successive win away from home in all competitions, moving us ahead of the previous record (also set by City between May and November 2017).

They are remarkable numbers in any language.

Man of the Match

Joao Cancelo continues to go from strength to strength and the Portuguese defender was in imperious form once again in Budapest.

Two stunning assists for City’s two goals set the seal on a wonderful night’s work from the 26-year-old whose vision, movement and creativity were again a joy to behold.

Aymeric the Centurion

It was a notable night too for Aymeric Laporte who chalked up his 100th City appearance in all competitions.

The central defender has been a huge part of our collective success since signing from Athletic Bilbao in January 2018.

And the Frenchman was in excellent form again tonight marshalling our back line superbly alongside Ruben Dias at the heart of our defence and making several vital interceptions.

Many congratulations, Aymeric!

Bernardo’s reaction

“It was a good game for us, I think a good win, a very important win as we know how important and tough this competition is as one mistake can mean that you are out.

“We tried to play simple, dominate the ball as we always do, to create chances and score goals. It is a good win.

“Usually I’m not (deadly with head]. I try to practice this a lot and I have a competition with Ruben [Dias] about who can score more headed goals. I think tonight I was lucky that Joao gave me a great ball. I’m happy to score the goal and help the team.

“It’s my fourth season here at City, it’s a great squad, it’s got great staff and it’s a pleasure to play for this team. So far it has been a great season for us. We need to keep going because we’re only half way through.”

Pep Guardiola’s reaction

“We played really well. We weren’t clinical enough upfront with the keeper. We have to be more clinical in this competition.

“You have to be better but in general no complaints we know how good they are and how physical they are. In general it was a good game. Kyle was exceptional  - the game he played.

“It was the first step many weeks until the second leg. We are thinking now about recovery before West Ham.”

Teams

CITY XI: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo, Rodrigo, Gundogan, Bernardo, Sterling (Mahrez 69), Jesus (Aguero 80), Foden (Torres 80)
Subs: Steffen, Carson, Stones, Zinchenko, De Bruyne,Mendy, Fernandinho, Garcia, Doyle

GLADBACH XI: Sommer, Kramer, Zakaria, Stindl, Plea (Lazaro 66), Lainer (Thuram 66), Hofmann, Bensebaini, Ginter, Elvedi, Nehaus.
SUBS: Sippel, Grun, Lang, Herrmann, Wolf, Beyer, Traore, Wendt, Jantschke, Embolo.

Stat Zone

City’s shut-out kings struck again as we recorded our 24th clean sheet of the season. One more than we recorded in the whole of last season!

For Brazilian keeper Ederson it was the 20th time this term the opposition has failed to find a way past him.

A 93rd minute save when Gladbach had broken clean through provided yet more compelling evidence of the all-round excellence of our keeper.

What it means

Tonight’s superb result puts City in a commanding position ahead of the decisive home leg against the German side at the Etihad.

That game takes place on Tuesday, March 16th with kick-off scheduled for 8pm with a place in the last eight the enticing prize for the victors.

Up next

City return to domestic action at the weekend when we play host to in-form West Ham at the Etihad Stadium.

David Moyes’ side have won seven of their last nine league games and are now two points ahead of fifth-placed Chelsea and five in front of Liverpool, who sit sixth.

That game kicks off at 12.30pm GMT on Saturday 27 February and we’ll have full coverage here on ManCity.com, with live text updates from 10.30am and our We’re Not Really Here live show kicking off at 11.30am.