Basel 0-4 Manchester City: Match Report

Manchester City took a gigantic step towards the UEFA Champions League quarter-final thanks to a 4-0 win away at FC Basel in the first leg of their Round of 16. The Blues were simply sensational for the entire 90 minutes and scored some great goals to get the win, and the tie may already be over before the second leg is even played.

FIRST HALF

If you are a City fan and were nervous about this game, the Blues were quick to establish their dominance in the match. City were simply spectacular for the whole 45 minutes, dominating possession and constantly creating chances with beautiful passing and movement off the ball.

City were up 3-0 after just 25 minutes thanks to goals from Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Sergio Agüero, which pretty much guaranteed the win and gave the visitors three away goals to take into the second leg. City did not drop their intensity at all and continued to look for goals, but they just had to settle for the three at halftime.

That was pretty good, though. Maybe another goal or two in the second half, lads?

SECOND HALF

City continued to stamp their authority on the match with a fourth goal thanks to a sweet goal from Gundogan, who place a gorgeous ball into the top corner to kill the game — and perhaps the tie. Basel needed to go for it to score at least once and have some hope and they tested Ederson multiple times, but the Brazilian keeper did a great job of keeping the clean sheet.

There were some decent chances for both sides at the end of the game, but no more goals were scored before the final whistle. The end of the game came and the Blues are now really, really close to the quarter-finals, confirming their status as favorites with a dominant performance away from home. This team is pretty good, right?

Man City: Ederson; Walker, Kompany, Otamendi, Delph; De Bruyne (Silva), Fernandinho, Gundogan; Bernardo, Agüero (Danilo), Sterling (Sané)

Goals: Gundogan (14’, 53’), Bernardo Silva (18’), Agüero (23’)

Basel: Vaclik; Xhaka, Lacroix, Suchy; Lang, Frei, Dié, Riveros; Stocker (Ajeti), Oberlin, Elyounoussi (Bua)

Goals: None