City’s seven star show smashes Schalke

Manchester, March 13: Pep Guardiola says Manchester City don’t fear any team in the Champions League after they powered into the quarterfinals with a 7-0 rout of hapless Schalke on Tuesday.

City had snatched two late goals to win the first leg 3-2 and they made the most of that fightback with a ruthless demolition job at the Etihad Stadium to clinch a 10-2 Round of 16 aggregate victory.

Sergio Aguero’s penalty opened the scoring in the 35th minute and the Argentine forward netted again soon afterwards before Leroy Sane, who also contributed three assists, struck against his former club.

Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus all scored after the interval to complete City’s biggest home win in the Champions League.

Guardiola’s side, who lifted the League Cup in February, remain on course for an unprecedented quadruple, sitting one

point ahead of Liverpool at the top of the Premier League before this weekend’s FA Cup quarter-final at Swansea.

This emphatic victory was the joint-biggest ever Champions League knockout stage win but won’t linger long in the memory given Schalke’s total lack of resistence.

Twice a Champions League winner as Barcelona boss, Guardiola claimed this week that City are “teenagers” in the competition compared to the established European powers. They have never won the Champions League, with their best performance a semifinal appearance in 2016 under Guardiola’s predecessor Manuel Pellegrini.

But City are one of the favourites to claim the trophy after Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain crashed out and, on this evidence, Guardiola’s players are up for the challenge of showing they are more mature than he believes.

“When I say we are a teenager team it doesn’t mean we are not going to fight,” Guardiola said.