Football – Champions League – Quarter-finals first leg: Manchester City storm engulfs Bayern Munich

Manchester City by KO While the shock of these quarter-finals of the Champions League has long kept all its promises, the Mancunian club ended up making short work of Bayern Munich on its lawn (3-0). Not helped by a sinking Dayot Upamecano, the Bavarians saw Rodri, Bernardo Silva and, of course, Erling Haaland bring the Sky Blues one step closer to qualifying for the last four before the second leg next Wednesday.

At the end of a ninth consecutive success, all competitions combined, for his training, Pep Guardiola lived a dream evening which continues to bring him closer to a title in C1 which has been denied to him since 2011. Manchester City is not still qualified for the semi-finals, but he took an advantage which seems decisive after another very high level game, in line with the performances of the reigning English champions in recent weeks.

45th goal of the season for Haaland

While they remained on a series of eight successes in a row in this competition, Thomas Tuchel’s men held out for a long time at the Citizens, in a game where the technical and collective quality on both sides produced a spectacle of great level. The Bavarians, slightly dominated in the first act, were close to opening the scoring but Ruben Dias made a splendid tackle to counter the strike from Jamal Musiala (26th). In the process, the Etihad Stadium exploded with joy on a marvelous strike from Rodri, from the left (1-0, 27th).

A stroke of genius that did not inhibit the visitors, well back from the locker room. But the former home, Leroy Sané, continually came up against a very solid Ederson (46th, 49th, 54th). If they seemed on track to come back, the Germans were weighed down by Upamecano’s missed performance. The French international, so sovereign against PSG, lost the ball in his camp against Jack Grealish. Launched into the area, Haaland delivered a superb assist to Bernardo Silva, who doubled the lead, thus rewarding his full match (2-0, 70th).

The start of a nightmarish end for the former Leipziger, who missed just about everything until the final whistle, while the emboldened Cityzens finished very strong. Already the author of a splendid double parade in the first act, the Swiss goalkeeper multiplied the rescues to avoid his team an even greater dip (57th, 76th). But he could not prevent the Norwegian cyborg from scoring his 45th goal of the season, at close range on a Stones discount (3-0, 76th). Benjamin Pavard and his teammates will have a lot to do at the Allianz Arena to overthrow such a mountain.