Sergio Aguero scored one goal and helped create another as Manchester City powered to a 3-1 first-leg win over Dynamo Kiev in the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday.
Aguero and David Silva’s goals gave City a 2-0 cushion at the break, before Vitaliy Buyalskiy pulled one back for Dynamo and Yaya Toure secured a valuable third away goal for City.
“It is not finished, but playing away and having a two-goal lead is very good,” City manager Manuel Pellegrini said. “Maybe when it was 2-1 we had moments of doubt, but then we got the third goal.”
Photo: Reuters
Facing a Ukrainian team who had not played competitively since December last year, Aguero took full advantage of poor Dynamo defending at a corner to score his 15th-minute opener with a simple finish after being left unmarked.
Aguero has now scored eight goals in City’s past nine games and 16 in his past 17 Champions League starts. The Argentine also helped to set up City’s second, feeding Raheem Sterling with a backheel on the edge of the box. Sterling then crossed low for Silva to score at the far post just before halftime.
Dynamo shook off some of the rust in the second half and struck back in the 59th minute through Buyalskiy, whose shot from 18m deflected in off Nicolas Otamendi. That marked the 10th Champions League game in a row in which City has conceded at least one goal.
Buyalskiy’s goal breathed new life into the Dynamo team, as well as delighting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who was watching from the stands with a group of soldiers in a show of support for Ukrainian forces fighting Russian-backed separatists in the country’s east.
Poroshenko almost had more to celebrate in the 79th minute when Buyalskiy came close to scoring his second, only to be denied by the superb reflexes of Joe Hart, who made a low one-handed stop to keep out the shot from the edge of the box.
It was Hart’s second notable save of the night, after he tipped over an effort from Dynamo’s star winger Andriy Yarmolenko in the opening minutes.
Both Silva and Sterling appealed for second-half penalties after making contact in the box with Dynamo defenders, but neither was given, though in Silva’s case it appeared the Spanish forward was unfairly denied a spot-kick.
Toure, who had earlier set up Aguero with a header for the opener, added City’s third with a curling shot in the 90th minute, leaving Dynamo’s 41-year-old goalkeeper Oleksandr Shovkovskiy helpless.
The win ends a three-game losing run for City in all competitions and comes after Pellegrini rested star players for a 5-1 loss to Chelsea in the FA Cup on Sunday, opting to focus instead on City’s push to reach a first Champions League quarter-final.
City had chances to leave Kiev with even more away goals ahead of the second leg on March 15, with one of the best opportunities coming when Toure headed narrowly wide from close range in the 82nd minute.
The game had been due to be played in an empty stadium as part of Dynamo’s punishment from UEFA for racist attacks on black fans at the group stage game against Chelsea in October last year.
However, UEFA reduced the sanction, allowing fans into the Olimpiyskiy stadium, which was far from full, though the home crowd was vocal. No major incidents of disorder appeared to occur in the stadium.
In Wednesday’s other game, 10-man PSV Eindhoven held on for a 0-0 draw with Atletico Madrid.
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