Aguero adds two as Manchester moves to final 16

It has taken three frustrating seasons, but Manchester City has finally reached the knockout stage of the Champions League for the first time - and the English team achieved it in style on Tuesday.

Alvaro Negredo scored a hat-trick and strike partner Sergio Aguero grabbed the other two goals as City crushed CSKA Moscow 5-2 to guarantee a top-two finish in Group D.

After splashing out hundreds of millions of pounds on big-name players over the past five years, City was desperate to transfer its recent domestic success to the European stage and make a dent in the Champions League.

But Roberto Mancini failed to get City out of its group in the past two seasons and was fired. His successor, Manuel Pellegrini, has turned a page in his debut campaign.

"The minimum target was to qualify for the next round but it's not the only target," Pellegrini said. "I'm sure the team we play (in the last 16) will not be very happy to play against us."

Not with Spaniard Negredo and Argentine Aguero in this kind of form.

A debate is raging in England about the Premier League's top strike partnership. Most favor Luis Suarez-Daniel Sturridge at Liverpool or Robin van Persie-Wayne Rooney at Manchester United, but the Negredo-Aguero combination is giving them a run for their money.

In putting City ahead 2-0 after a third-minute penalty and a sumptuous turn and shot in the 20th, Aguero became City's leading European scorer with 13 goals and has now scored in six straight games.

Negredo made it 3-0 in the 30th minute after tapping in Aguero's teasing cross, slotted home from Samir Nasri's deft lay-off in the 51st for 4-1 and then rounded off a satisfying night for the host side with a headed goal.

"Aguero is in great form, not only because he's scoring but because the whole team is playing offensive football and that's important," said Pellegrini, whose side came into the game off a 7-0 thrashing of Norwich in the Premier League on Saturday.

Such was City's swashbuckling attacking play, admittedly up against a feeble CSKA defense, that it almost took the attention away from what was going on in the crowd.

Almost.

The behavior of CSKA fans was under heavy scrutiny in the wake of the first meeting between the sides, a 2-1 win for City two weeks ago that was overshadowed by racist chanting by home supporters that earned the Russian club a partial stadium ban.

The small contingent of CSKA fans that traveled to Manchester for the return game was flanked by a mass of stewards,.

All that remains now is the prize of winning Group D, in which Bayern Munich has a three-point lead over City. They square off on the final match day.

(China Daily 11/07/2013 page24)