Manchester, Jan 30 (IANS) Manchester City secured a place in the UEFA Champions League play-offs after a second half comeback saw Pep Guardiola side beat Club Brugge 3-1 in their final league stage clash.
Victory means that City finished the league phase in 22nd place and will go into the draw for the play-off stages of the Champions League, which will be made on Friday.
With a victory needed to avoid an early exit, Pep Guardiola’s side were on the front foot from the early stages but fell behind on the stroke of half-time when Raphael Onyedika stunned the Etihad Stadium.
City were level eight minutes after the restart with a superb solo goal from Mateo Kovacic before Joel Ordonez turned Josko Gvardiol’s cross into his own net.
And the nerves were settled further when Savinho added a third with an excellent control and finish from John Stones’ perfect cross-ball.
The win secured a place in the top 24 and City will play either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich for a place in the last-16.
“Going to Bayern Munich or Real Madrid will be really tough but it’s in two weeks and in two weeks we have a few players back, the new signings back, so hopefully we can do two good games.”
Meanwhile, Rodrygo struck twice for a second Champions League game in a row as Real Madrid once again demonstrated their attacking flair to end the league phase on a high with a 3-0 win over Brest.
The Brazil forward opened the scoring by skilfully weaving through the Brest defence and finding the net via the far post. Jude Bellingham then tapped in to finish a counterattack early in the second half, before Rodrygo reacted first to Marco Bizot’s save from Kylian Mbappe to blast in the visitors’ third.
Madrid finished 11th in the league phase table, ahead of Bayern in the standings on away wins.
On the other hand, FC Bayern beat Slovan Bratislava 3-1 in the last match of the Champions League’s league phase on Wednesday night. Thomas Muller handed Bayern an early lead, with Harry Kane doubling the advantage after the hour.
Kingsley Coman put the game to bed in the closing stages before Marko Tolic got a consolation goal for Slovan. Despite the result, Munich will contest the play-offs for the right to reach the round of 16.
–IANS
bc/
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