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Demolition men: Sergio Aguero leads the way as Man City crush Schalke to reach Champions League last eight
There was a solemn apology from Schalke in the aftermath of this defeat, the second-biggest aggregate hiding in the history of the Champions League, one that seemed to acknowledge not just the margin of their opponent’s victory but also the manner of the demolition.
There were lots of goals for Manchester City, 10 over the two games, seven on the night and 26 in eight Champions League matches for Pep Guardiola’s side, but there was also a remorselessness about the way they went about it. No side in the last eight of the competition has scored more goals than City and while this might have had none of the drama of the miracle in Paris that those from Old Trafford pulled off, it is hard to think of a side more tuned up for this competition.
It is just the third time in City’s history that the club has reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League, although they have never looked more like they belong there. There is no question that the men from Schalke in high-viz green were dreadful on the night, caught between chasing the game or parking the bus, succeeded only in doing neither. By the end, however, they seemed mesmerised by something else too, perhaps the reputation of their opposition and the memory of City’s last-minute 10-man win in Gelsenkirchen two weeks earlier.
Guardiola said later that the turning point was at 2-1 down with 25 minutes left away to Schalke when he said the game could have got away from his side had they fallen further behind rather than win the game 3-2. It was certainly not his most convincing alternative narrative given the Etihad evisceration that had just taken place - during which it felt like City could have scored any number of goals and Schalke would have been powerless to stop them.
It should be said that two of the home team’s best performers were both former Schalke players, Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan, who did much of the damage in this cruellest of evenings for the German club. There will be Schalke players in the last eight of the competition, just none that currently play for the club. Once City found their rhythm after the half hour, their opposition just felt incidental to it all. “We can only apologise for tonight”, Schalke’s official Twitter feed posted at the end, by which time even their noisy support had fallen into quiet contemplation.
There was a role to play for the video assistant referee too, the Frenchman Nicolas Rainville, who might be named for an evening in Manchester. From his screen in Uefa headquarters he kept the stadium waiting on a number of occasions as he considered the decisions of the on-field officials and the crowd grew restless with the delay. Rainville overruled his colleagues significantly only once, judging that Raheem Sterling’s fine volley on 56 minutes had been onside and a clear and obvious error committed in flagging it otherwise.
The first two goals from Sergio Aguero and another for Sane before half-time did not prompt any great change of direction at the break from Domenico Tedesco, the Schalke coach, and his beleaguered players lost their way completely. Sterling, Bernardo Silva and then the substitutes, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus, scored the four after half-time against a team that barely knew which way was up by the end.
“We are not the first team to let in a lot of goals here,” reflected Tedesco later, one of those new generation of coaches for whom Guardiola is the benchmark. “It is not important what other teams have done here. It is what we have done. After the first leg we thought we had a chance and could perform here. I think I sound mad after losing 7-0 but that is what I believed.”
It was over in the blink of an eye within seven first-half minutes when City finally reached the speed of play that Guardiola had in mind when he cajoled and berated his players towards the end of a largely uneventful opening half an hour. He was frustrated at the pace of the football from his team, if not the levels of possession which were naturally high, up to 72 per cent by half-time. He wanted the ball moved with one or two touches and not the relatively ponderous pace that his side started with.
Gundogan’s ball clipped over the top after half an hour fell for Bernardo Silva to run onto when the Portuguese playmaker felt an arm from Jeffrey Bruma thrust across his chest. The French referee, Clement Turpin, was slave to his VAR all night, but this decision of his passed muster. The challenge was clumsy from Bruma, a former Chelsea academy boy, and just about reached the benchmark.
Aguero let the goalkeeper Ralf Fahrmann fling himself to his left before brushing a panenka down the centre of the goal. Tough on the big German who was caught out a couple of minutes later when Sterling, released by Gundogan, racked up another assist with a backheel to Aguero who took the ball with his right and then poked a shot through the goalkeeper’s legs.
Schalke collapsed quickly from then on. Oleksandr Zinchenko’s ball into the left channel for Leroy Sane three minutes before half-time was struck with his left foot into the far corner, the second of two goals against his old team over the tie. He scored another in the second half which was ruled out for offside, a decision approved by VAR.
After the break it was hard to see what approach Schalke had settled on. First Sterling scored with a shot taken first time from the right channel which VAR considered for some time. Then Bernardo Silva scored from the edge of the box from Sane’s cutback. Foden went round the hapless Fahrmann for six and the German goalkeeper dived over Jesus’ goal for the seventh. There was nothing left for Schalke to do but apologise. Burton Albion conceded nine here in January but that seemed to be little consolation for the team from Germany.
Pep Guardiola pleased
Well it was a great result, we're happy to achieve the quarter-finals, hopefully we can take another step forward. We start not quite well, a bit scared to play and after 1-0 the team relaxed and decide to play and be aggressive. With the qualification already done it's tough for them and we play a good level.
We have a lot of injured players so we want to continue this run in April, one international game, just to make a good recover, we have incredible staff and they know they have to compete each other, everyone wants to play.
A little bit quicker! It's fair. Today the VAR was against us in Germany, the two penalties, but at the end it's fair. The first penalty was hand from Nico (Otamendi) and then it was offside, so in the end it is fair.
On Friday we are going to enjoy the draw, tomorrow we enjoy two games, Barcelona and Liverpool, in the meantime we prepare for Swansea to try and achieve the semi-finals at Wembley.
77 mins - Man City 5 Schalke 0 (8-2 on agg)
Couple of stats for you:
- Leroy Sané has now been directly involved in 75 goals under Pep Guardiola, trailing only Aguero (109) and Sterling (92).
- Raheem Sterling has been directly involved in nine goals in his last four starts at the Etihad in all comps (6 goals, 3 assists)
60 mins - Man City 4 Schalke 0 (7-2 on agg)
Schalke have a shot at goal! Konoplyanka has a ping from distance but Ederson can easily catch it. The crowd cheers it. No VAR review this time.
Zinchenko has to do some defending soon after as Schalke put together another attack. He blocks at the near post to prevent the low cross.
53 mins - Man City 3 Schalke 0 (6-2 on agg)
SANE IS IN! And it's that same ball again! This time Sane can't apply the finish needed and sidefoots it wide of the far post. That ball is always on for City it seems.
Meanwhile, in the other last-16 game tonight, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored twice to pull Juventus back into it against Atletico Madrid. It's such a predictable, ridiculous, amazing story. Follow that one with Adam Hurrey's liveblog here.
48 mins - Man City 3 Schalke 0 (6-2 on agg)
City are looking to have some fun. Sterling bursts away, Sane blasts a shot into bodiesThere's no way Schalke are motivated to try and win this, there's more chance of me being asked to come on as a sub than that.
And just in case Pep is reading this, yes I am interested.
Man City's strategy
Pep Guardiola's read the walkthrough guide on how to beat Schalke - it's not hard either. Aguero drops deep, a centre-back follows him, the wing-back stays tight to the opposition winger, which leaves a massive gap between wing-back and winger.
The midfielder plays the pass into that space, the winger easily outpaces the wing-back. Man City score.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL!
And it's three!
Schalke's shape is leaving these spaces between the wide wing-back and the line of centre-backs. City are just threading the pass into it and being put clean in on goal. Sane latches onto this pass and finishes low into the bottom corner.
VAR review
Martin Keown is droning on about VAR (again) but does have a point that people in the crowd don't know exactly what they're reviewing. The crowd is booing now.
"This is taking forever," says Ian Darke. It's taken under two minutes so far.
The review is in, Sterling is onside, VAR SAYS GOAL! It's 2-0 to City!
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL!
AGUERO HAS TWO! Brilliant play from Sterling. Gundogan finds him with the same ball that Walker tried earlier, Sterling uses his balance to hold up the ball then assists AGuero with a little backheel. Aguero has to stop himself falling over, then stabs a shot through the goalie's legs from inside six yards.
The VAR is checking to see if there was an offside in that move now.
37 mins - Man City 1 Schalke 0 (4-2 on agg)
Aguero drops deep, then darts in behind the defence - brilliant movement - takes a long, chipped pass down and has time to take a shot. Schalke defenders surround him and block, the move breaks down.
Schalke latch onto a loose pass in midfield, Sabouli breaks... shoots from 25 yards... but drags it wide.
PENALTY!
Bruma is booked as he fouls Bernardo in the box, blocking him and bringing him to the ground as he chases a chipped pass into the area. I've seen them not given but it looks like a penalty. VAR is in operation, I'm not sure if the referee is consulting it. Schalke are moaning about it, of course.
24 mins - Man City 0 Schalke 0 (3-2 on agg)
Bernardo weaves his way into the final third but runs out of options and plays half a pass which gives Schalke the chance to break! In true Man City style, he concedes a foul immediately to end the move but the referee doesn't book him. It's a definite yellow.
15 mins - Man City 0 Schalke 0 (3-2 on agg)
Big chance for City!
Walker plays a brilliant pass into Sterling's run, he has Aguero attacking the near post and squares the pass to him... and he misses! That's basically an open goal!
8 mins - Man City 0 Schalke 0 (3-2 on agg)
Sane is surrounded and wins a free-kick wide left. Silva puts it in, the ball drops by Sane but he can't hit it and Sterling sensibly goes backwards so City can get back into shape and start again.
Schalke clearly in a 5-4-1, looking to block, contain and counter.
5 mins - Man City 0 Schalke 0 (3-2 on agg)
But that's exactly what City can't afford to do! The corner is short, the ball is won and they charge forward on the counter-attack. The cross misses everyone in the box and Guardiola's team get away with one - Schalke are looking for those opportunities, there's no room at all to be complacent tonight.
3 mins - Man City 0 Schalke 0 (3-2 on agg)
Danilo is definitely a centre-back, Guardiola hasn't gone with some mental 1-3-dfhdskfhdfkjsh formation. The Schalke fans are having a nice time singing some songs in the away end, City are passing the ball around and gaining territory. Leroy Sane wins a corner after a great forward pass from Danilo puts him in behind the defence.
Pep Guardiola making sure his players know the tie's not over
It is what it is. When you play four competitions in a season it happens, it's the wrong moment in the season in terms of injuries so Danilo has to play there.
All the teams in the Champions League have a massive quality, especially in the counter attack. Of course in the league they are not on top but we know it will be tough in the 90 minutes.
The second leg when you have bad result you have nothing to lose - it's a dangerous situation. We're focused on what we play, what we do.
Raheem Sterling is one of the best players in the world
Rio Ferdinandhas just brought up a really interesting point and something that's become a huge story this season. The point is that were Sterling not black, he might be considered as one of the world's best players.
"I think Raheem has been judged on the colour of his skin. How he conducts himself off the pitch is a testament to him.
"It's brave. As a player if I speak up the attention's on me. He's shown there's a maturity there, he's still a young guy. He's improving year in year out."
Joleon Lescott adds:
"We've all experienced issues in the past, it's a credit to him."
For what it's worth, I do actually think Sterling is one of the best players in the world at the moment. He wouldn't make my World XI because Leo Messi plays where he's best but you get the idea. He's also better when you watch him live - the balance, strength, vision, way he darts from a standing position to super fast in a finger snap. And now he can finish, which seems like it might be down to confidence and repetition. Sterling's scored so many goals that it's become big-game muscle memory. No wonder Guardiola loves him.
Martin Keown says 'no threats' tonight
Hmm. Sure enough, Schalke don't have any standout players and are struggling in the league but they scored two in the last game. They're not a bad team.
Bundesliga sides tend to be excellent on the counter-attack and in transition generally, something which works against teams who send players forward in a bid to control possession. You don't always have to have a superstars to win games.
Is this Man City's year?
Hello and welcome to our liveblog for Man City vs Schalke, a game that you'd really expect Pep Guardiola's side to win but which absolutely maybe won't be as easy as that.
City have a 3-2 lead from the first leg but it was hard work. Schalke have been less than great this season and sit four points above relegation in the Bundesliga... but they did well in the first leg. What gives?
Everyone's figured out that if you play a very deep 5-4-1 shape against Man City, wait for them to make a mistake and then counter-attack quickly, get luck to fall in your favour and then take your chances, you can absolutely beat them. Not everyone gets the luck. Away from home City might have been a bit nervy - as Guardiola says, the club is a Champions League teenager not a seasoned veteran - but they got the job done. That's what counts.
Tonight they need to avoid complacency, treat Schalke like the danger they are and ensure that they take their own chances. Raheem Sterling will be key, as City's absolute best player this season, because Sergio Aguero is doubtful and they need a couple of goals to make things safe. If City can get a nice wee lead, Schalke will surely find it impossible to score the necessary number of away goals to pull off a shock result and Guardiola's lads will be through to the quarter-final.
The team news will be with us very soon, you can follow all the action here and I'll be doing live analysis too, breaking down what's actually going on in the game as opposed to just typing what I see. Hopefully that makes it slightly more interesting for you.