What a night.
Manchester City finally ended their Barcelona curse as they ran out comfortable 3-1 winners in the Champions League courtesy of another Ilkay Gundogan double and a superb Kevin De Bruyne free-kick.
The game looked as though it would follow the normal routine against the Spanish champions when Lionel Messi stroked home in the first half for the visitors, but instead of rolling over to Barca’s quality, City showed real belief and determination to go on and get a hugely deserved result.
The first goal came out of nothing but Aguero did well to capitalise on a rare defensive mistake and feed Sterling, who rolled the ball across for Gundogan who did the rest; but as soon as the equaliser went in there was only going to be one winner.
De Bruyne raised the Etihad roof with a sumptuous set piece just after half-time to put the Blues ahead and although Barcelona rallied, hitting the bar through Sergio Busquets, City claimed the points when Gundogan was presented with another simple chance after the ball had broken in the box.
So what did we learn from the encounter? I present four findings:
