English giants Manchester City thrashed Sporting Lisbon in the first leg of the round-of-16 in Champions League as they bagged a convincing 5-0 victory on February 15.
Silva nets twice
For City their Portuguese striker Bernardo Silva was on fire as he scored a brace against the Portuguese side. The visitors took just 7 minutes to open the scoring as their Algerian striker Riyad Mahrez scored the first goal of the match. Just 10 minutes later, Silva found the back of the net to secure a two-goal cushion for his side.
England’s attacking midfielder Phil Foden scored the third goal of the night in the 32nd minute of the match.
Just a minute before the halftime whistle, Silva found his name in the score sheet for the second time as his shot took a big deflection and eventually beat Sporting Lisbon custodian Antonio Adan. City’s fourth goal of the night turned out to be a memorable one as they became the first team to score four goals in the first half of a Champions League tie.
Later, in the second half, English striker Raheem Sterling scored the fifth goal of the fixture in the 58th minute of the match.
Astonishing numbers
Manchester City’s sublime domination was evident from the fact that they took 15 shots in total in the game and the hosts could not even register a single shot on the target.
Later, after the match, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola called Silva as “a perfect player.”
"Always I tell him: Bernardo, you are a perfect player, defensively so intuitive, can run 12km, 13km – but with sense, not just running for running – and with the ball he's more than exceptional,” said Guardiola in a news conference after the match.
"But I always say: you have to score goals, you have to win games, you have the ability to do it.
"And today, with the [first] goal, he scored one of the best I've ever seen – for the technique, for everything. Hopefully he can get confidence [from the goal],” Guardiola added.
On the other hand, 13-time Champions League winner Real Madrid faced a painful 1-0 defeat against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the first leg of the round-of-16.
