Manchester City 5-1 Atalanta: City come from behind to win as Phil Foden sees red
Raheem Sterling grabbed a quickfire second-half hat-trick as 10-man Manchester City thrashed Atalanta 5-1 to put one foot in the Champions League knockout stages.
The England forward struck three times in the space of 11 minutes after Sergio Aguero had netted twice to cancel out Ruslan Malinovsky's penalty opener for the visitors at the Etihad Stadium.
City's victory lifted them five points clear at the top of Group C with three games still to play but there were downsides.
Phil Foden, who otherwise had a fine game, was sent off for two bookable offences and Rodri hobbled off injured.
Manager Pep Guardiola may be also concerned about a sluggish start which allowed Atalanta to make a lot of the early running.
Despite their poor record in the competition, the visitors showed the attacking intent that has again lifted them to third in Serie A after finishing in that position last season.
They troubled City in the early stages and could have gone ahead when Robin Gosens chipped a clever cross across goal but Timothy Castagne headed over.
City roused themselves and created a series of good chances. Sterling chipped narrowly wide before failing to find Aguero when well placed.
Aguero forced a good save from Pierluigi Gollini and then shot over after brilliant work by Foden to keep the ball in play on the byline.
City were stung after 28 minutes as Fernandinho, again playing in a makeshift central defensive partnership with Rodri, brought Josip Ilicic down just inside the area. Malinovskyi sent Ederson the wrong way from the resulting spot-kick.
City responded well and were back level within six minutes as Sterling ran across the edge of the box and clipped in a cross for Aguero to calmly tap past Gollini.
The hosts then stepped up a gear and soon claimed the lead with a penalty of their own after Sterling was brought down by Andrea Masiello following another weaving run.
Aguero stroked home the spot-kick and City threatened again as Kyle Walker's deflected shot was turned away by Gollini.
City lost Rodri just before the break with what looked like a hamstring injury but they at least had a specialist defensive replacement in John Stones.
Atalanta offered little after the break and City took a firm grip on the game with a fine team goal just before the hour.
Raheem Sterling is unstoppable 🔥
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) October 22, 2019
He bags a hat-trick on the night...
And has now been involved in 22 goals across his last 17 home Champions League outings (14 goals, 8 assists) 🤯 pic.twitter.com/cLdvu74ebR
Riyad Mahrez released Kevin De Bruyne down the right and he burst into the area to feed Foden, who in turn teed up Sterling for an emphatic finish from six yards.
Sterling struck again soon after as he raced onto a defence-splitting Ilkay Gundogan pass and wrong-footed a defender to fire home.
Remo Freuler put the ball in the net for Atalanta but was ruled offside before Sterling completed his treble by turning home an inviting Mahrez cross.
Sterling should have had a fourth after racing through one-on-one but rolled his shot wide of the post.
City's night ended on a bad note as Foden, booked harshly moments earlier for a foul, was shown a second yellow card and then a red for pulling back former Middlesbrough midfielder Marten De Roon.
⚽️ Raheem Sterling has taken the match ball home after four of his last 35 games since March! #MCFC #MCIATA pic.twitter.com/426nLp1onn
— Sporting Life Football (@SportingLifeFC) October 22, 2019
Champions League scores
- Atletico Madrid 1-0 Bayer Leverkusen
- Shakhtar 2-2 Dinamo Zagreb
- Club Brugge 0-5 PSG
- Galatasaray 0-1 Real Madrid
- Juventus 2-1 Lokomotiv Moscow
- Manchester City 5-1 Atalanta
- Olympiacos 2-3 Bayern Munich
- Tottenham 5-0 Crvena zvezda
Opta facts
- Manchester City’s victory was the biggest for an English side against an Italian side in all European competitions since Manchester United’s 4-0 win over Milan in 2010.
- Atalanta have become the first Italian side to lose their first three Champions League games, and the first side overall since Otelul Galati in 2011-12.
- Manchester City have won three of their last five Champions League games in which they conceded the first goal (D1 L1).
- Man City’s Raheem Sterling scored his first ever Champions League hat-trick, becoming the 8th different English player to do so in the competition.
- Man City’s Sergio Aguero became just the second player to score 20 Champions League goals at an English stadium (21), after Ruud van Nistelrooy at Old Trafford (23).
- Man City’s Phil Foden (19y 147d) became the second youngest English player to be sent off in a Champions League match after Glen Johnson for Chelsea against Lazio in November 2003 (19y 73d).
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