Manchester City 2-0 Galatasaray: Injury-troubled Sky Blues avoid further fixture congestion by skipping past playoff rounds
This may not be vintage Manchester City but an Erling Haaland back among the goals restores optimism to a side that have seen it fade in the past month.
The fecund Norwegian had not scored in open play since facing West Ham on 20 December, his only strike on target being from the spot against Brighton on 7 January. But a rest against Wolves last weekend appeared to have done him much good and he needed only 10 minutes to superbly dink the ball over Galatasaray goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir.
City were on top just as they needed to be, Rayan Cherki’s effort making it 2-0 moments later, although by the second period they seemed to have relinquished control, and Victor Osimhen missed a chance to test their nerves after firing straight at Gianluigi Donnarumma.
By the end, Guardiola would have been extremely pleased, and relieved, that his side avoided a double-leg playoff round in February by finishing in eight place and securing automatic qualification to the last 16.
It rested of course on Benfica’s defeat of Real Madrid in one of the night’s other 17 fixtures, but after watching Jeremy Doku limp off in the first half to extend his side’s injury list, Guardiola will be accepting the luck wherever he can get it.
