Manuel Veth - Manchester City v Schalke was never really in doubt. Schalke had thrown away a 2-1 lead in the first leg, and with that, the overall ti
Manuel Veth –
Manchester City v Schalke was never really in doubt. Schalke had thrown away a 2-1 lead in the first leg, and with that, the overall tie as City was simply too much to handle for die Knappen in Manchester as they were destroyed 7-0.
- Schalke sunk again
- Leroy Sané spectacular
- What about Tedesco?
Manchester City v Schalke
Goals: 1-0 (Kun Agüero, 35’), 2-0 (Agüero, 38’), 3-0 (Leroy Sané, 44′), 4-0 (Raheem Sterling, 57′), 5-0 (Bernardo Silva, 71′), 6-0 (Phil Foden, 79′), 7-0 (Gabriel Jesus, 85′)
Schalke sitting deep with five defenders managed to contain Manchester City in the opening stages. It was a measured defensive approach. Nonetheless, City had chances with the biggest falling to Kun Agüero inside 14 minutes when the Argentine had keeper Ralf Fährmann beat but hit the post from about three yards out.
That should have given Manchester City the lead. But as it stood Schalke were still in it and with their five-man defence provided an almost impossible barrier for City, who were in complete control of the match passing the ball around the box.
City, however, just needed to be patient as it was obvious that Schalke would sooner or later make a mistake. That mistake came in the 34′ minute after a long ball over Schalke’s defence almost reached Bernado Silva, the Portuguese midfielder was, however, held back by Jeffrey Bruma and the referee had no choice but to point to the spot to award a penalty. This time Agüero would not be denied scoring with a beautiful Panenka.
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Agüero, however, was not done there yet. In the 38′ minute, the Argentine had Fährmann beat again. A long ball to the right sent Raheem Sterling off to the races, the winger spotted Agüero open in the centre, and the strike put the ball through the keeper’s leg. The goal was then under lengthy review, to long really almost three minutes passing between the goal and the end of the review.
Not that it mattered much for Schalke. Any hope of a comeback was extinguished by the first goal already. But City enjoyed the occasion piling further misery on the Schalke head coach Domenico Tedesco when Leroy Sané scored a third from close range adding to his goal he scored in the first leg.
Eight minutes into the second half Leroy Sané had Fährmann beat again. The Schalke product had rounded the keeper to score a beauty but once again VAR interfered, and this time the goal was called back. It was a VAR filled evening because in the 57′ minute Sané played a fantastic ball from the left across the goalmouth where Sterling beat Fährmann, the goal was initially chalked off but given after a relatively short review.
It was a walk in the park for Manchester City at this stage, and in the 70′ minute they strolled to their fifth goal. Once again Sané was involved, Oleksandr Zinchenko spotted the wingers run on the left and Sané then played a ball to the centre where Bernardo Silva easily beat Fährmann.
Leroy Sané, in particular, was brilliant. The forward was picked out at the edge of the box in the 78′ minute, played a ball through to Phil Foden, who had come on a few minutes earlier, inside the box and the City starlet made no mistake slotting the ball past a hapless Fährmann.
Fährmann, in particular, had a terrible night and in the 85′ minute let a more than saveable shot slip under his arm to allow City’s seventh goal scored from 18-yards out by Gabriel Jesus.It was, therefore, almost a relieve for Schalke when the referee blew the final whistle to end their misery.
Manchester City v Schalke – Man of the Match
Leroy Sané was unplayable. The former Schalke winger run riot among a Schalke defence that was in complete shambles. The German international scored one and assisted on three more and enjoyed the evening against his former side.
Manchester City v Schalke – Leroy Sane of Manchester City takes the ball past Ralf Faehrmann of FC Schalke 04 and scores a goal which is later ruled offside during the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 Second Leg match between Manchester City v FC Schalke 04 at Etihad Stadium on March 12, 2019, in Manchester, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Manchester City v Schalke – Talking Point
Manchester City were excellent no doubt about it. But Schalke’s performance was not worthy of a Bundesliga side playing in the Champions League. Following the 4-2 defeat against Werder Bremen new sporting director Jochen Schneider suggested that he saw enough to hang on to head coach Domenico Tedesco despite Schalke’s relegation troubles. It will be interesting to see whether Schneider will change his decision following this game.
Manchester City v Schalke – Match Stats
- Sané is the first player in the current Champions League campaign to be directly involved in four goals (one goal, three assists) in a single game.
- Sané is the first German player to score in three consecutive Champions League games since Marco Reus in 2015 (four games in a row).
- Raheem Sterling has been directly involved in nine goals (six goals and three assists) in his last four starts at the Etihad in all competitions.
- Sergio Aguero has scored 11 goals in his last seven Champions League appearances against German opposition.
Manchester City v Schalke – Line-ups
Manchester City:
Formation: 4-3-3
Ederson – Zinchenko, Laporte (Delph, 73′), Danilo, Walker – Silva (Foden, 64′), Gündogan, Bernardo Silva – L. Sané, Agüero (Gabriel Jesus, 64′), Sterling
Coach: Pep Guardiola
Schalke:
Formation: 5-4-1
Fährmann – Oczipka, Bruma, S. Sané, Stambouli, McKennie (Mendyl, 75′) – Konoplyanka, Bentaleb, Serdar, Embolo (Skrzybski, 68′) – Burgstaller (Teuchert, 80′)
Coach: Domenico Tedesco
Manuel Veth is the owner and Editor in Chief of the Futbolgrad Network. He also works as a freelance journalist and among others contributes to Forbes.com and Pro Soccer USA. He holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in History from King’s College London, and his thesis is titled: “Selling the People’s Game: Football’s transition from Communism to Capitalism in the Soviet Union and its Successor States,” which is available HERE. Originally from Munich, Manuel has lived in Amsterdam, Kyiv, Moscow, Tbilisi, London, and currently is located in Victoria BC, Canada. Follow Manuel on Twitter @ManuelVeth.
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