It was a great result - Manchester City a 3-2 win at Schalke 04

Gelsenkirchen: Late goals from Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling gave Manchester City a 3-2 win at Schalke 04 in their Champions League round-of-16 first leg on Thursday (AEDT) that put the English side in the driving seat.
Substitute Sane scored against his former club with a sensational free kick in the 86th after Nabil Bentaleb converted two spot kicks in the 38th and 45th minutes to put Schalke ahead.

 

Sergio Aguero had given City the lead in the 18th and the English champions were left with 10 men in the 68th minute when Nicolas Otamendi was sent off following a second booking.

City, who have conceded at least two goals in six of their seven games in the Champions League knockout stages under Pep Guardiola, will also be without yellow-carded Fernandinho for the return leg in Manchester on March 12.




Pep Guardiola was far from happy after the match, particularly after the two penalties his team conceded in seven minutes.
"It was a great result. We gave the first penalty, we gave the second penalty, we gave the red card, so that is not good," Guardiola told reporters.

"So still we are not ready to fight for the final stages [of the competition]. That is the reality. We played good but we lost some easy balls, which you are not allowed to do in this competition. And we conceded two penalties.

"It was like last season at Anfield [against Liverpool] when we lost 3-0. We gave away two goals when they [Schalke] didn't do absolutely anything … The game was quite good at the end [with] the quality from Leroy. The big players win you this kind of game."

City's Champions League record is far less illustrious than their recent Premier League one, having reached the semi-finals only once - during the 2015-16 campaign.
"We have been through some difficult patches this season," said Sterling. "Not every game is going to be 2 or 3-0. We are going to be under pressure in the Champions League but we stuck with it and got our reward.

"We have got the leg at home. We have got to go and look at ourselves and be better than tonight."

Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid have beaten Juventus 2-0 to take control of their Champions League last-16 tie.
Centre-backs Jose Maria Gimenez and Diego Godin scored Atletico’s goals from set pieces in the space of five second-half minutes to earn Diego Simeone’s side a deserved victory at the Wanda Metropolitano.