UCL: Cityzens not bothered by Swiss 'youth', Atletico put half-a-dozen in Celtic's net

Manchester City booked their safe passage to the Champions League knockout stages with a 3-0 win against Young Boys, extending their formidable unbeaten home run in the competition to 25 matches.

With the surprise inclusion of Erling Haaland in the City starting eleven, Young Boys were always up against it at the Etihad Stadium. Credit where it’s due for the Swiss side, they commendably saw out the first 15 minutes with a clean sheet, largely thanks to some heroic goal line defending from Loris Benito, who cleared Rico Lewis’ effort off the line shortly before Anthony Racioppi produced a stunning double save to deny Kyle Walker and Phil Foden.

UCL: Newcastle wear green but Dortmund are Magpies' kryptonite

City didn’t have to wait too much longer to find a breakthrough though, and they were given a helping hand when Sandro Lauper caught Matheus Nunes in the area, affording Haaland the chance from 12 yards, one he duly accepted. It wasn’t all positive for the Norwegian in the first half, as the Young Boys defence incredulously left him unmarked from six yards out, but somehow, Haaland fumbled his effort which was grasped by the grateful Racioppi.

That was only a temporary reprieve for Young Boys, who were punished on the stroke of halftime, and in some style too, when a sumptuous Foden touch had the finish to match as he curled into the far corner. City showed no signs of slowing up after the break and soon added a third when Haaland slammed home from the edge of the area. As if things couldn’t get any worse for the Swiss outfit, they soon did when Lauper was shown a second yellow card for a late challenge on Nathan Aké, leaving Young Boys with the daunting task of facing the last 40 minutes with ten men.

Strangely, the visitors looked slightly more assured at a man disadvantage, perhaps due to their acceptance that the game was up. So is their Champions League campaign too, as they’re now in a straight shootout with Red Star Belgrade to secure a transfer into the Europa League. At the other end of the group, City have assured a top-two finish and could wrap up top spot in their next competition outing against their challengers, RB Leipzig.

Elsewhere, Atlético Madrid produced their biggest-ever Champions League win, dominating Celtic in a 6-0 victory, which puts Diego Simeone’s side top of Group E.

Celtic entered this match knowing they had a mammoth task at hand, with no wins in their last six competition away games, and having kept just one clean sheet in their last 34 games in the competition. Atlético Madrid got off to a perfect start taking the lead inside six minutes. A cross into the Celtic box was headed away to the feet of Antoine Griezmann, who was lurking on the edge of the danger area and his deflected shot deceived Joe Hart, nestling into the bottom corner.

The Hoops looked to be growing into the game after falling behind and thought they had a penalty on the quarter-hour mark after Daizen Maeda was entangled with Mario Hermoso when travelling with the ball into the box. A VAR review found that the contact happened outside of the box, therefore resulting in no spot kick. The two were involved in an incident minutes later as the Japanese forward went in studs up dangerously onto the leg of Hermoso, resulting in a yellow card initially, but after rewatching the pitchside monitor, the referee upgraded the card to a red - their third in the Champions League this season. Their task was made almost impossible right on halftime, as Álvaro Morata prodded the ball home after José María Giménez headed across the face of goal.

The home side were relentless after the break, producing a barrage of chances as Celtic were desperately clinging on. Giménez struck the crossbar with a looping header, before Griezmann put the game to bed with a superb acrobatic finish after the visitors failed to deal with a cross into the box. Atleti were in the mood for goals and added a fourth just after the hour-mark. This time, Samuel Lino picked up the ball on the left wing, jinked into the box and let a sublime curling finish into the far corner.

Simeone’s Atleti side quite rightly have a reputation of grinding out 1-0 victories, often with football that many would say is not pleasing on the eye. Their fifth goal however, was the complete opposite, as a 24-pass move was finished off by Lino chesting the ball towards Morata on the edge of the box and the Spaniard took a touch and then rifled the ball into the top corner - a beautiful team goal, summing up their dominance on the night. The Spanish outfit added a sixth goal late on as Saúl Ñíguez pounced onto a loose ball, firing into the roof of the net and they sit atop of Group E with two games remaining, whilst Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic look destined to exit Europe after a disappointing campaign, with just one point after four games.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Group stage - matchday 4

Tuesday

Dortmund - Newcastle 2-0 (1-0)

/Fullkrug 26, Brandt 79/

Shakhtar - Barcelona 1-0 (1-0)

/Sikan 40/

Atl. Madrid - Celtic 6-0 (2-0)

/Griezmann 6, 60, Morata 45+2, 76, Lino 66, Saul 85/

Lazio - Feyenoord 1-0 (1-0)

/Immobile 45+1/

Milan - PSG 2-1 (1-1)

/Leao 12, Giroud 51 - Skriniar 9/

Crvena Zvezda - RB Leipzig 1-2 (0-1)

/Kanga 81 - Simons 8, Openda 77/

Man City - Young Boys 3-0 (2-0)

/Haaland 22 pen, 52, Foden 45/

Porto - Antwerp 2-0 (1-0)

/Evanilson 31 pen, Pepe 90+1/

Wednesday

20:45: (1.42) Napoli (4.50) Union Berlin (7.75)

20:45: (2.00) Sociedad (3.50) Benfica (4.10)

23:00: (1.25) Bayern (7.00) Galatasaray (12.0)

23:00: (4.50) Copenhagen (3.60) Man.Utd. (1.90)

23:00: (1.35) Arsenal (5.60) Sevilla (9.50)

23:00: (1.80) PSV (3.60) Lens (4.60)

23:00: (1.28) Real Madrid (6.75) Braga (10.5)

23:00: (6.00) Salzburg (4.00) Inter (1.65)

***odds are subject to change***