MANCHESTER, March 13: Rampant Manchester City demolished a woeful Schalke 7-0 to complete a 10-2 aggregate win and become the third English side into the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Tuesday.
City’s record home win in Europe did not look likely after a quiet opening 35 minutes but once Sergio Aguero began the rout from the penalty spot it became embarrassingly easy as City reached the last eight for the third time in four years.
Aguero doubled City’s lead three minutes later and the impressive Leroy Sane made it 3-0 before halftime.
Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva finished off flowing moves after the break and youngster Phil Foden bagged his first European goal before Gabriel Jesus made it seven, rounding off the biggest ever Champions League defeat for a German side.
City, who trailed 2-1 in the away leg with 10 men before turning it around late on, join local rivals Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in Friday’s quarter-final draw, the first time since 2011 that at least three English clubs are in the last eight.
Schalke, United, Lyon and Ajax into Europa League last eight
Liverpool can make it a full house when they play against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
With Real Madrid and Paris St Germain having been knocked out, Guardiola’s side will fancy their chances of going all the way for the first time in the competition.
“It was a clear result. We didn’t start that well, we were a bit scared to play,” Guardiola, whose side racked up the biggest aggregate win by an English club in the knockout rounds, said.
“But after it went 1-0, we relaxed and decided to play and be aggressive.”
Schalke’s players were barracked by their own fans at the end of a miserable night for Domenico Tedesco’s side who face a fight to preserve their Bundesliga status.
“You can imagine how I’m feeling. Terrible,” Tedesco said. “We played well for 30 minutes, but after we went 1-0 down, we had an extreme drop off in performance.”
The sight of Sane causing so much discomfort for his former club hardly helped their mood.
The 23-year-old, who joined City in 2016, was a handful all night but it was the ever-reliable Aguero who got the ball rolling — coolly dinking his penalty down the middle after Silva was bundled over by Jeffrey Bruma.
VAR FRUSTRATION
Aguero then took advantage of Sterling’s backheel to make it 2-0 although a near three-minute VAR delay to check whether the England forward had been offside in the buildup frustrated the fans inside the Etihad Stadium.
Sane then swept in City’s third as Guardiola’s side began to cut through a dispirited Schalke at will, although again there was an annoying VAR delay before his goal was confirmed.
Sane had a goal wiped out for offside in the second half but then produced a great slide-rule cross to feed Sterling who powered home City’s fourth goal in the 56th minute.
Boos rang out as VAR was yet again employed to ensure Sterling had been onside when the ball was played across.
Another Sane assist allowed Silva to make it 5-0 before City threaded their way through the Schalke defence and Foden skipped around exposed keeper Ralf Faehrmann to add a sixth.
Far from take their foot off the gas City were hungry for more goals and substitute Jesus got his name on the scoresheet when he curled in with six minutes remaining.
