Manchester, Oct 3 (IANS) Bayern Munich outclassed Manchester City 3-1 at Etihad Stadium here to register two straight victories in Champions League football.
The visitors, who returned to England five months after their European triumph at Wembley, took an early lead Wednesday night through Franck Ribery‘s long-range effort before two quickfire relay goals from Thomas Muller and Arjen Robben, reports Xinhua.
Though City reduced the gap to two goals and Bayern were reduced to ten men after Jerome Boateng’s red card, it was the German side prevailing in 90 minutes, which sent them to top the Group D with six points after two rounds.
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Bayern, who bid to become the first team to retain the European’s top trophy, stunned the host after just seven minutes when Ribery picked up a cross-field pass on the left to cut inside and beat England’s number one Joe Hart with a low shot.
The defending champions looked imperious in a lop-sided first half with a 67 percent of possession and were 5-1 ahead in shots on target, while Manuel Pellegrini’s side struggled to get a foothold in the midfield contest.
Man City fought back with the solid ten minutes after the restart but just failed to survive the visitor’s counter-attack.
Muller, the lone striker in front of a five-man midfield, was set free from a diagonal overhead pass of Dante and beat the off-side trap to round Hart with a cool finish.
Robben nearly sealed the victory for the Bundesliga giant with half an hour left when he cut inside and fired a low shot in from the edge of the area after Bayern launched another sharp counter-attack.
City revived in the last twenty minutes when David Silva came from the bench to support the trapped holding midfielder Yaya Toure, both supplying their frontline with more chances.
Another replacement Alvaro Negredo pulled one back with ten minutes left and City seemed to approach a miracle comeback after Boateng was shown red card for hauling down Toure. But it was too late.
Silva was rejected by the bar from the subsequent freekick, then the disappointed City fans began to leave seats in advance.
