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Manchester City Take One More Step on the Road to Greatness in Spain

Stewart Flaherty, November 3 2011,
Manchester City produced their best performance of the UEFA Champions League so far with a resounding 3-0 win over Villarreal in Spain.
Yaya Toure and Mario Balotelli celebrate City's third goal at the Estadio El Madrigal.
Yaya Toure and Mario Balotelli celebrate City's third goal at the Estadio El Madrigal.
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City have already achieved domestic respect, sitting five points clear at the top of the Premier League table, and having delivered a 6-1 beating to defending champions Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Performances such as this will spread that respect across the continent, and allow City to make a more legitimate claim to becoming a true power.

Back when this group was drawn, fans and pundits universally named UEFA Champions League Group A as “the group of death.”

German champions Bayern Munich won this competition in 2010 and are a traditional force, whereas Villarreal CF made the UEFA Europa League semi-finals last season, and finished fourth in La Liga.

City were drawn third, and the alleged fourth seed was SSC Napoli, who finished third in Serie A last term.

Napoli as the fourth seed puts the difficulty of this group in perspective when you look at Manchester United and Chelsea, who will play two group stage games against Otelul Galati and KRC Genk respectively.

During the first three games, this group looked to be exactly as difficult as billed for City, and many fans feared the Citizens would not have enough to reach the knockout stages.

A difficult 1-1 home draw with Napoli opened Champions League group play for City, before they were thoroughly outclassed in a 2-0 defeat at Bayern Munich.

With players showing open dissent to Roberto Mancini in Munich, it appeared that maybe a disgruntled City would not quite have enough to progress in this competition.

Hope was restored during matchday three, when City scraped a 2-1 win over last placed Villarreal. Sergio Aguero gave them three points with virtually the last kick of the game and sparked emotional scenes of celebration on the City bench.

Last night City went one step further, and for the first time replicated their Premier League form on the European stage.

Whereas the home win over Villarreal was a stuttering and nervous display, last night in Spain, City dominated possession from the opening whistle and cruised to a resounding win over the same opposition.

City opened the scoring at the half hour mark when David Silva set up Yaya Toure to fire past Diego Lopez and give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

Mario Balotelli doubled the City lead when he converted a penalty during first half injury time. Mateo Musacchio felled the Italian striker in the box, and Balotelli got up to slot his penalty past Lopez.

City goalkeeper Joe Hart was largely a spectator during the second half as City controlled the game. The Citizens rounded out a 3-0 win when Yaya Toure danced past Carlos Marchena and rolled in the third goal.

Silva hobbled off with a back injury for City during the second half, but that could not take the shine off what manager Mancini described as an “important” win.

Qualification for the last 16 can now be sealed with a win at Napoli during matchday five, and Mancini believes “anything is possible” for his team if they maintain this level of performance.

“If we make the knockout stages then anything can happen because we’re a good team,” Mancini told BBC Sport. “I enjoyed this performance.”

LINEUPS

VIL – Diego Lopez, Roriguez, Musacchio, Marchena, Perez, Catala, De Guzman (Angel 76), Perez (Oriol 84), Wakaso (Bordas 76), Valero, Joselu.

MAN C – Hart, Kompany, Zabaleta, Savic, Clichy, Milner, Nasri, Silva (Johnson 65), De Jong, Y TOure (Aguero 74), Balotelli (Kolarov 82).

SCORING SUMMARY

MAN C – Yaya Toure (David Silva) 30’
MAN C – Mario Balotelli (penalty kick) 45+3’
MAN C – Yaya Toure (Mario Balotelli) 71’

LiveSoccerTV Man of the Match: Yaya Toure (Manchester City)

Attendance: 24,235

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