LONDON: Bernardo Silva scored once and set up another as Manchester City moved to the verge of the Champions League quarter-finals with a 2-0 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach on Wednesday.

A first half header from Silva and a Gabriel Jesus strike in the second period of the last-16 first leg tie in Budapest extended City’s winning run to 19 games in all competitions and gave them a huge advantage for the March 16 return leg in Manchester.

Pep Guardiola’s City camped inside the Gladbach half for most of the game at an empty Puskas Arena, which was moved to the Hungarian capital due to Germany’s Covid-19 travel restrictions.

It was a good game for us, a good win, very important,” scorer Silva said. “We know how tough this competition can be. You make a mistake and you’re out. So we tried to play simple, make no mistakes, control possession as we always do and create chances and score goals. It was a very good game for us, but it’s not over yet.”

Gladbach, who haven’t been this deep in Europe’s top club competition since losing to Liverpool in the European Cup semi-finals in 1978, had just one shot at goal.

We had to face a top team and we felt it,” said Gladbach coach Marco Rose. “But we made some mistakes even though we defended well in general terms. We were not clean enough against such a team. Every pass every run has to work against them.”

Real Madrid are also within touching distance of the quarter-finals after Ferland Mendy netted an 86th-minute winner in Bergamo to give the Spanish giants a 1-0 win against 10-man Atalanta in the other last-16 first leg on Wednesday.

The French left-back’s curling effort in a clash in which the hosts had to play a man down for over 70 minutes, after Atalanta’s Remo Freuler was sent off in the 17th minute for denying Mendy a goal-scoring opportunity, gave Zinedine Zidane’s side the advantage heading into the second leg in Madrid on March 16.

We didn’t have a great game tonight, but the most important thing was the result, scoring away was important for us,” said Zidane. It’s a very good result against an Atalanta team even at ten, because they defended very well. The tie is open. We are going to have a great return match.”

Real are 13-time European Cup winners while Atalanta only made their debut in the competition last year, when they surprisingly reached the quarter-finals where they came within a couple of minutes of eliminating Paris St-Germain.

But Atalanta’s chances of beating their more illustrious opponent diminished when Freuler was harshly sent off for barging over Mendy on the edge of his own penalty area.

“The match was ruined,” Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini said. “I don’t know what the result would have been, we might have still lost, but it would have been a much different and better match. I just got banned for saying something in Serie A, if I say something now then UEFA will ban me. But this is football suicide.”

CANCELO SPARKS WIN

Versatile, tactically astute and boasting the creativity of a midfield playmaker, Joao Cancelo is a one-of-a-kind defender who is proving to be City’s unlikely secret weapon this season.

Gladbach certainly couldn’t handle the Portugal international.

Two pinpoint and almost-identical crosses from Cancelo, City’s roving full back, set up goals for Silva and Jesus in a one-sided first leg.

A sublime inch-perfect cross by Cancelo curled over the defence from the left to reach his compatriot Silva who flicked his close-range header past Yann Sommer in the 29th minute to put City in front.

Silva then headed on another cross from man-of-the-match Cancelo in the 65th minute for Jesus to stab in.

The sight of record scorer Sergio Aguero coming on as a late substitute for his first appearance since January 3 because of injury capped a night full of positives for City except for the fact the margin of victory should have been wider.

“Unfortunately today we were not clinical enough up front. It is something we have to improve in this competition,” said Guardiola, who is looking to lead City to the Champions League title for the first time, after a number of painful eliminations in recent years.

MENDY’S LATE WINNER

Real, who were missing players including forward Karim Benzema, midfielder

Eden Hazard and captain Sergio Ramos still found it difficult to test Atalanta goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini until the end of the first half, when he pulled off a great reaction save to keep out Casemiro’s header from Toni Kroos’ free kick.

Half chances for Luka Modric and Vinicius Jr. were all they could come up with as the game entered the latter stages.

It was going to take something special to breach the well-organised home side and full back Mendy provided it when he received the ball outside the area after a corner and curled a shot into the right side of the net from 25 metres.

Atalanta can take comfort from the fact they have won all their European matches away from home this season, including a 2-0 victory over Liverpool at Anfield.

“We just have to win in Madrid,” Gasperini said. “It’s easy we cant overthink, we just have one possibility. We must win.”

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2021