Manchester City enjoyed the perfect warm-up for Sunday’s crucial Premier League trip to Liverpool as they cruised past Copenhagen to reach the Champions League quarter-finals for a seventh successive season.
Ahead by two goals from the first leg in Copenhagen three weeks ago, any lingering hopes of a shock were ended within nine minutes as Manuel Akanji and Julian Alvarez found the net.
Erling Haaland went joint top of the tournament scoring charts alongside Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe as he netted his sixth of the campaign – and 29th in all competitions – as City scored a third before half-time after the visitors had pulled one back.
The Norwegian, who Ole Gunnar Solskjaer reminded everyone Manchester United could have signed for £17m in 2019 on the Stick to Football podcast, has scored in three successive games for the first time since October.
It is good news for City boss Pep Guardiola before the Anfield encounter.
Guardiola had said in the build-up he would not be spending any time thinking about Liverpool until the Copenhagen match was out of the way.
That statement was exposed by the fact he made seven changes to the side that beat Manchester United at the weekend and then replaced key man Rodri at the break.
The changes did not hinder City, who are on the longest current run of successive Champions League quarter-final appearances. The only English club to ever have done better in the competition is Manchester United, who reached the last eight in seven consecutive seasons from 1996-97 to 2002-03.
Instant replay
The last thing you would want after gifting the opposition a goal is to have the embarrassment replayed so everyone in the stadium could see all the gory details.
Sadly for former Liverpool and Huddersfield goalkeeper Kamil Grabara, that was his fate.
The Poland international already knew he had let Alvarez’s shot from the side of the penalty area slip through his fingers after Rodri’s header was only half cleared when it came back off the bar.
A capacity crowd was unaware of the scale of the mess-up and the gasp that echoed round the stadium as the replay was shown on the big screen in the corner will not have made Grabara feel any better.
It was Alvarez’s 16th goal of an another excellent season and must have been a concern for Copenhagen’s on-loan Scotland defender Scott McKenna, who was part of a Nottingham Forest side that lost by six in this stadium last term.
As it turned out, Copenhagen rallied and former Southampton man Mohamed Elyounoussi halved the deficit with a precise 12-yard finish into the corner after 29 minutes.
The goal stung City, who had been ahead early after Akanji had held off Peter Ankersen to sweep home a first-time shot from Alvarez’s corner.
Haaland restored the home side’s advantage when he drove home in first-half stoppage time.
Liverpool lie ahead
When 18-year-old local lad Jacob Wright replaced Haaland three minutes from time, all three outfield players who retained their place from the Manchester United game had been subbed. Rodri’s evening came to an end at half-time.
Of the players omitted, only John Stones came on, taking the captaincy from Ruben Dias.
That in itself says everything about the importance Guardiola is placing on the Liverpool game.
With a home encounter with the other Premier League title challenger Arsenal to come on 31 March, this month is likely to be pivotal in City’s quest to become the first club to win the English league title four seasons in a row.
Clearly, Guardiola will need more than 11 players for the task, so he will hope Portugal midfielder Matheus Nunes’ badly dislocated finger does not force him to spend any time on the sidelines.
He will also be keenly awaiting next Friday’s draw, when City will discover the route they must take if they are to reach the final at Wembley.
But now, all eyes are on Anfield. It promises to be a cracker.
