Kevin De Bruyne congratulated by his Manchester City teammates on his goal against Mönchengladbach, in Budapest on March 16, 2021. -

Tibor Illyes / AP / SIPA

The knockout stages of the Champions League were pretty easy for Manchester City.

It must be said that the club did not fall with Mönchengladbach against a very consistent opponent.

Without too much surprise therefore, after a first leg already dominated by the head and shoulders, Manchester City put it back by winning by the same score (2-0), Tuesday in Budapest.

Just nine days after seeing their record-breaking streak for England of 21 consecutive wins in all competitions come to an end, the Citizens give the impression of having started another.

However, it will be necessary to wait for the quarter-finals, the draw of which is Friday, to truly judge this team.

Mönchengladbach has fun on Twitter

The game looked so easy on paper that City were able to take the opportunity to give some of their players a rest.

Bravache, the Twitter account of Borussia Mönchengladbach even quipped before the meeting on the composition of "Manchester" we do not even need a striker "City", Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Agüero being on the bench.

The club has also remained faithful to the principles of play introduced in mid-December, which see a side come to support Rodri in the axis of the field in the possession phase, to allow Ilkay Gündogan to join the attacking quartet and attack at 5. And when the line of attack includes Gündogan, Riyad Mahrez, Kevin de Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden, we can quite do without real nine.

Case folded in 18 minutes

City did not even need 20 minutes to demonstrate.

The time for the Belgian playing master De Bruyne to propel an overpowering strike with his left foot - the "bad", it seems ... under the bar (1-0, 12th) before Gündogan makes one of these calls from afar he loves so much this season, to receive a cross pass through a mouse hole from Foden and closely deceive Yann Sommer (2-0, 18th).

With overwhelming possession of the ball, Manchester City was then able to afford an hour of play without pressure but never giving the feeling of falling too easily, even if he did not score afterwards.

Mönchengladbach, caught in a very negative spiral since the beginning of February, sees his Champions League campaign end in a fishtail with a fourth defeat in a row in this competition, a sign that the march was far too high.

City on the other hand, which was able to run in the second half with the 5 authorized substitutes in C1, will not have had to draw too much on its resources and hope, this year, to end three eliminations in a row in the quarter-finals.

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