Manchester City enjoyed the perfect warm-up for Sunday’s crucial Premier League trip to Liverpool last night as they cruised past Copenhagen to reach the Champions League quarter-finals for a sixth successive season.
Ahead by two goals from the first leg in Copenhagen three weeks ago, any lingering hopes of a shock were ended within nine minutes as Manuel Akanji and Julian Alvarez found the net.
Erling Haaland went joint top of the tournament scoring charts alongside Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe as he netted his sixth of the campaign – and 29th in all competitions – as City scored a third before half-time after the visitors had pulled one back for the game to end aggregate 6-2
The Norwegian, who Ole Gunnar Solskjaer reminded everyone Manchester United could have signed in 2019 on the ‘Stick to Football’ podcast, has scored in three successive games for the first time since October.
It is good news for City boss Pep Guardiola before the Anfield encounter.
Guardiola had said in the build-up he would not be spending any time thinking about Liverpool until the Copenhagen match was out of the way.
That statement was exposed by the fact he made seven changes to the side that beat Manchester United at the weekend and then replaced key man Rodri at the break.
The changes did not hinder City, who are on the longest current run of successive Champions League quarter-final appearances. The only English club to ever have done better in the competition is Manchester United, who reached the last eight in seven consecutive seasons from 1996-97 to 2002-03.
Elsewhere, Vinicius Junior provided the quality finish which RB Leipzig lacked to secure a 2-1 aggregate win and qualification into the last 16 for Real Madrid.
Like the first leg, German side Leipzig were made to pay for wasting a host of chances when Vinicius clipped in Jude Bellingham’s pass with 25 minutes left for a 2-0 lead.
Leipzig finally converted an opportunity three minutes later when skipper Willi Orban flicked in a header.
The goal provided renewed belief to the Bundesliga side and they continued to open up the Spanish La Liga leaders as they searched for a leveler.
Former Barcelona youngster Dani Olmo came the closest to taking the tie into extra time – because away goals no longer count in UEFA competitions – when his looping header clipped the top of the crossbar in injury time.
But Real, aiming to become European champions for a record-extending 15th time, managed to hold out and reach the quarter-finals for the 12th time in the past 14 seasons with aggregate 2-1 win.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side will find out their quarter-finals opponents when the draw for the last eight is made on Friday, 15 March (11:00 GMT).
RESULTS
Man City 3-1 Copenhagen
(6-2 agg)
R’Madrid 1-1 RB Leipzig
(2-1 agg)
EUROPA
Sporting 1-1 Atalanta
TODAY
Qarabag v Leverkusen
Roma v Brighton
S’Prague v Liverpool
AC Milan v Slavia
Benfica v Rangers
Freiburg v West Ham
Marseille v Villarreal
