City close on last eight, PSV hold Atletico

KIEV, Ukraine: Manchester City moved within touching distance of a first appearance in the Champions League quarter-finals after a dynamic first-half display at Dynamo Kiev helped them secure a 3-1 last-16 first-leg win on Wednesday night and ten-man PSV Eindhoven were held to a goalless draw at home to Atletico Madrid.

City were irrepressible in the opening 45 minutes, slicing through their opponents almost at will and taking a 2-0 lead with goals from Sergio Aguero and David Silva.

The hosts, however, improved dramatically after the restart and Buyalskiy’s deflected effort reduced the arrears to fire up the home crowd and spur on the Dynamo players.

City keeper Joe Hart was forced into a superb save to deny Buyalskiy an equaliser, but Yaya Toure curled home late on to leave the tie firmly balanced in City’s favour ahead of the return leg on March 15.

The English side, who reverted to a full-strength team after resting a host of players in a humiliating 5-1 FA Cup defeat by Chelsea, began with real intent, dominating possession and pressing their opponents into near submission in a classy first-half display.

The hosts, returning from their winter break, looked very much a side who had not played an official match in two and a half months.

After a minor scare for City when Hart pushed an effort from Andriy Yarmolenko onto the crossbar, the visitors took the lead after 15 minutes.

Toure headed Silva’s corner into the path of Aguero, who made the most of the space he had been afforded to chest the ball down and volley sharply past keeper Olexandr Shovkovskiy for his 16th goal in his last 17 Champions League starts.

The visitors missed chances to extend the lead with Aguero flashing a shot fractionally wide and Toure forcing Shovkovskiy to palm his effort away at the near post, but it was not long before they doubled their advantage.

Silva, playing in a central playmaker role, finished off a teasing low cross from Raheem Sterling at the far post in 40 minutes after good work from Aguero.

Kiev came out in the second half with renewed vigour and reduced the deficit when Buyalskiy’s rasping effort from the edge of the area took a big deflection off Nicolas Otamendi and nestled in the corner of Hart’s net.

Kiev piled forward and Hart was forced into a superb low save to deny Buyalskiy an equaliser with 10 minutes remaining, but Toure put City within touching distance of the last eight when he curled in from 20 metres in the 90th minute.

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany said they played like a team “hungry for success”.

“The performance was good, with a lot of high pressing. 3-1 is a good result and we are happy with it,” Kompany told BT Sport.

“We are going into the second leg with a fairly good chance to go through, which has not been the case before. We looked like a team that was hungry for success tonight,” he added.

Meanwhile Atletico Madrid, who have earned a well-founded reputation for their iron-clad defence this season, were held by the Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven who had to produce a stout rearguard action to avoid being beaten and leave the tie balanced ahead of the return leg on March 15.

PSV, making their first appearance in the knockout phase of the competition since 2007, were forced to play the closing stages deep in their own half after the 20-year-old striker Gaston Pereiro was sent off for a second booking in the 68th minute.

Having been cautioned in the first half, he was dismissed for a needless shoulder challenge on Atletico defender Diego Godin.

“It was a difficult game. They were super good and super quick,” PSV defender Jeffrey Bruma told reporters.

“We fought with power and we did it well, and we can be satisfied with the 0-0. We still have it in our hands,” he added.

The home side had started the game in an ambitious mood, fielding three attackers despite the absence of suspended top scorer Luuk de Jong.

Godin did put the ball in the net with a close-range header midway through the second half, but his effort was ruled out for a push on a PSV defender.

The best chance of the first half also fell to Atletico. Forward Luciano Vietto raced on to a long ball inside the opening three minutes and scooped it over PSV keeper Jeroen Zoet, but saw his effort cleared off the line by the back-tracking Bruma.

Atletico had to wait almost an hour for another opportunity with substitute Fernando Torres hitting a good effort wide almost immediately after coming on.

Bruma blocked a close-range effort from Angel Correa in the final 10 minutes with the ball striking him full in the face and knocking him off his feet.