Aguero hat-trick fires City to rout of Steaua
Sergio Aguero brushed off two missed penalties to score a hat-trick as Manchester City outclassed Steaua Bucharest 5-0 on Tuesday in the first leg of its Champions League playoff tie in Romania.
The result means new City coach Pep Guardiola can breathe a huge sigh of relief as the Abu Dhabi-backed club now has one foot in the lucrative group stage.
David Silva opened the scoring in the 13th minute, between two failed spot kicks from Aguero. The Argentine then atoned with the visitors’ second goal just before halftime.
New signing Nolito scored his first City goal shortly after the break, and Aguero then tallied two more as Guardiola’s side seized complete control ahead of the return leg in Manchester next week.
“We are almost in the Champions League. That was our target,” Guardiola told BT Sport.
“It was a great performance, great attitude. The result is amazing; I am so satisfied with the way we played — a big compliment to these fantastic players.”
England goalkeeper Joe Hart was again left on the bench by Guardiola, with Nicolas Otamendi and Pablo Zabaleta drafted into the City defense as last year’s Champions League semifinalist embarked on its latest European adventure.
Raheem Sterling won an early penalty for City, just as he did in Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League victory at home to Sunderland, when he was fouled by Muniru Sulley inside the area.
Aguero saw his spot kick turned away by Steaua keeper Florin Nita, with Nolito blasting the rebound off the crossbar.
City capitalized on more sloppy defending from the home side when Sterling stole the ball from Alin Tosca and set up Silva to drill a bullet shot past a helpless Nita.
Gabriel Enache handed Aguero another chance from the penalty spot with just 20 minutes gone when he crudely upended Aleksandar Kolarov, but this time the Argentine blazed well over.
However, the striker redeemed himself with a superbly placed finish four minutes before the break after Sterling sifted the ball into his path on the edge of the area.
Before the match Guardiola spoke of his desire to play a brand of soccer that will captivate the club’s supporters, and the Spaniard was delighted with his side’s performanceas it showed Ste au a no mercy in the second half.
Nolito, played through by Kevin de Bruyne, rounded Nita to notch City’s third goal and open his account for his new club after arriving from Celta Vigo in the summer.
Aguero rounded off a flowing move of one-two passes with an arrowed low strike into the corner in the 78th minute, and he completed his hat-trick a minute from time after racing clear of the Steaua defence to beat Nita from the top of the box.