City maintain unbeaten UEFA Youth League record with narrow win over Sevilla

Top spot in Group G was already secured going into the meeting with the Spanish side, after our 3-3 draw with Borussia Dortmund last time out.

An own goal from Alvaro Garamendi gave us the lead before a commanding display allowed us to keep a clean sheet and secure three points.

WHAT HAPPENED

Despite coming into the fixture as group winners, our intensity certainly hadn’t dropped as we created the better opportunities in the opening exchanges.

Less than two minutes after the whistle Tom Galvez collected the ball on the left-hand-side and whipped a delightful ball to the back post where Joel Ndala directed a powerful headed into the palms of Ivan Morales who held.

The visitors needed to win at Academy Stadium to keep their faint play-off hopes alive, but they failed to threaten George Murray-Jones’ goal during the first half as we enjoyed possession in front of a stable defence.

We continued to probe and broke the deadlock in first half stoppage time when Ezra Carrington was unleashed down the right hand side.

The right-back then slid a teasing ball into the six-yard box where Will Dickson‘s powerful strike from close range flew into the net via a deflection from Garamendi.

Ndala has started Academy life strongly this season, and he almost worked his magic in the early stages of the second half when he twist and turned in the box which allowed him lose his marker before his teasing ball across the face of goal evaded our oncoming attackers.

In similar fashion to the first half, we were side looking most likely to score and almost doubled our lead when the ball was slid into the path of Nico O’Reilly whose lobbed attempt was well saved from close range.

Morales’ ability was once again tested moments later when Josh Adam hit a ball that was destined for the top corner from range, but was thwarted by the acrobatic fingertips of the Spaniard.

Despite the narrow scoreline, Sevilla looked as though the wind had been taken out of their sails - with their best chance of the half falling to Daniel Alonso who hit a speculative effort from 25-yards into the gloves of Murray-Jones who claimed with ease.

During the final 10 minutes we were content to maintain possession with our opponents happy in their defensive shell.

However, in second half stoppage time, Garamendi’s received his marching orders when he was booked twice in quick succession to end his UYL campaign in miserable fashion.

And after finishing as group winners, our attentions in the UEFA Youth League turns to February 13 for the Round of 16 draw.

TEAMS

City: Murray-Jones, Carrington (Wright 56), Burns (Katongo 85’), Alleyne, Galvez, Shea (Whittingham 66’), Ndala, Adam, Dickson (Ogwuru 66’), O’Reilly, Bobb (Alfa-Ruprecht 56’)

Subs: Van Sas, Borges, Oboavwoduo, Grant

Sevilla: Morales, Martinez, Hormingo (Sow 71’), Garmendi, Munoz (Torres 46’), Fuentes (Cruz 46’), Alonso (Lopez 78’), Lopez, Gomez, Vazquez, Gonzalez (Sebastian 46’)

Subs: Marin, Bosada, Cruz, Gonzalez, Carmona, Sow

WHAT IT MEANS            

Following victory, our position as group winners remains unchanged after we secured progression to the Round of 16 last time out against Dortmund.

We finish at Group G’s summit with 14 points after a run of four wins, two draws and no losses.

As table-toppers, we are automatically through to the knockout stages with the draw taking place on February 13.

The eight runners-up are placed into the play-off stage alongside the eight survivors of the 32-team Domestic Champions path, where the remaining eight teams will emerge as last-16 contenders.

Stay tuned to mancity.com and the official Man City app for details of who we are drawn against.

UP NEXT

PL2 action returns on Saturday 5 November and there is a small matter of a Manchester derby for City.

We travel to Manchester United looking to bounce back from our 6-3 defeat to Everton last time out, with the game kicking off at 13:30pm (UK).

At present we sit sixth in the table on 18 points after a run of five wins, three draws and two losses from our opening 10 games.

Next Fixture

All fixtures

Sat 05 Nov

Premier League 2

Man United

13:30

GMT

Man City