City reach last 16 after draw against Shakhtar

LONDON: Pep Guardiola insisted it was mission accomplished as Manchester City booked their place in the Champions League last 16 for a seventh successive season despite a lacklustre 1-1 draw against Shakhtar Donetsk.

Guardiola’s side were well below their best at the Etihad, but Ilkay Gundogan’s second half strike put them on course to wrap up first place in Group C with one game to spare.

Although Manor Solomon equalised for Shakhtar, Atalanta’s win over Dinamo Zagreb ensured City can’t be knocked off top spot.

“We have qualified. We played so good in second half. The group stage is always tricky but the target was to qualify and we have done it,” Guardiola said.

“Now we have one competition already done – we play the last game qualified as first in the group – so we can focus on the (English) Premier League until we arrive in the Cups.”

With the group clinched, Guardiola has the bonus of being able to rest players for the trip to Zagreb on Dec 11.

That is especially important as the Zagreb fixture comes between vital Premier League matches against Manchester United and Arsenal.

While City won’t give up their Premier League title without a fight, Liverpool are in such a strong position that Europe could provide Guardiola’s best hope of a major prize this term.

Guardiola won the Champions League twice as Barcelona boss but the last of those triumphs came in 2011. He hasn’t gone past the quarter-finals with City.

Returning to the knockout stages was a first step towards ending that frustrating streak, but Guardiola will know injury-hit City have plenty of room for improvement.

“Shakhtar have quality players and are well organised and have an extraordinary goalkeeper so we knew it would be difficult,” Guardiola added.

“We had a lot of opportunities but at the end, 1-1 was enough to qualify. We did it seven years in a row.

“But this competition in February will be completely different, tougher.

“We’ll see in which conditions we arrive there. This competition is about the details.”

— reuters Going all out: manchester City’s Fernandinho (left) in action against shakhtar donetsk’s Junior moraes during the Champions League Group C match at the etihad on Tuesday.