'Impotent' City torched as Mbappe runs riot

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In the glamour Champions League match on Thursday (AEST).

After linking up with the European champions on a massive transfer from Paris Saint-Germain.

The 26-year-old burnt the City team to a crisp with a stunning hat-trick.

Catch every match of the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, Streaming ad-free, live and on demand on Stan Sport.

The 3-1 second-leg win meant Madrid sailed through to the round of 16 following their 3-2 win in the first leg in Manchester last week.

"Everything's running smoothly as planned at the moment and this is one of the best vibes I've heard from Madrid fans in a while," Spanish football expert Semra Hunter said to Stan Sport from the famous Bernabeu Stadium.

They've absolutely smashed it up in the stadium. The City fans are making a fair din tonight. I mean, I'd almost forgotten they were even here.

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They're as quiet as a ghost, you can't even hear a peep out of them... the atmosphere here is one of complete hopelessness. It's like total despair.

The city team have won the last four Premier League championships, but are currently sitting fourth on the league table this season, behind runaway leaders Liverpool, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest.

"The city looks like a caricature of itself," Hunter said.

This mob's got no recognisable style. There's no penetration, their passing's clumsy. There's no attacking threat, defensively they're a shambles.

I mean, it's just going completely off the rails. They look like a team that's checked out. They're already planning their summer break and counting down the days until August. Like they just want to chuck in the towel on the season.

It's pretty disappointing because they haven't shown any real fight at all... they're just given up.

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Just a few minutes into the game, Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe gave his team a 1-0 advantage, but Manchester City's John Stones had to be replaced due to what seemed to be a knee injury.

The player was substituted in the eighth minute, shortly after scoring his first goal, and then fell to the ground.

He walked off the pitch on his own and was replaced by Nathan Ake.

The city had already kicked off the match without star forward Erling Haaland, who wasn't fit enough to play due to a knee injury he got in the Premier League.

"We were close but it wasn't enough," City manager Pep Guardiola said.

He did a bit of training yesterday, but he had a chat with me this morning and said he's not feeling right.

Haaland had scored both goals for City in the first leg.

Guardiola looked a bit fussed at times while trying to give instructions to his players.

He often looked downbeat and despondent, with his hands shoved deep in his pockets or his arms crossed.

Guardiola turned around in apparent disgust after watching Mbappe score the opening goal.

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He headed back to his seat for a few minutes after Mbappe scored the second goal in the 33rd minute, and again after Mbappe finished his hat-trick in the 61st.

When goalkeeper Ederson resorted to a long punt while under pressure in the first half, Guardiola twice turned to him with his arms out wide, as if asking "Why?"

Guardiola hadn't missed out on a last-16 spot in his previous eight seasons at City, nor in his three at Bayern Munich or his four at Barcelona.

The city had reached that stage every year since 2012-13.

Guardiola, who led City to its first Champions League title in 2023, reckons his team is "a long way off" where it should be, despite the fact that it's shown glimpses of the top-notch outfit that he's guided to a string of titles in recent years, including a 4-0 trouncing of Newcastle in the Premier League on Sunday (AEDT).

The Socceroos' coach has been without world player of the year Rodri for nearly the entire season due to a knee injury.

Rodri's absence has gone a long way in explaining why the team hasn't been able to control the ball like they did in recent years, and their defensive problems have also had a big impact on their results so far this season.

Meanwhile, Borussia Dortmund were barely tested in a 0-0 draw with Sporting Lisbon, whose Champions League campaign fell apart after coach Ruben Amorim left for Manchester United in November.

Dortmund won 3-nil on aggregate.

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Sporting was second in the 36-team standings under Amorim, but since then they've struggled to win any of their six Champions League games under two different coaches.

Dortmund's coach was sacked mid-season and new coach Niko Kovac has managed to secure two victories on the European stage, although he's still struggling to get results in the German league, with two consecutive losses.

The team that finished runner-up last season, Dortmund, will meet either Lille or Aston Villa in the next round after the draw for the round of 16 takes place on Saturday at the UEFA headquarters in Switzerland.

It was a straightforward win despite a 59th minute penalty being saved by Sporting goalkeeper Rui Silva, which was taken by Serhou Guirassy.

Still, Sporting's chances of making the Champions League next season are looking up compared to Dortmund's.

Portugal's champion automatically moves on to the next league stage and Sporting is currently at the top, two points ahead of Benfica.

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Dortmund is currently ranked 11th in the German league, the Bundesliga, and may need to win the Champions League to secure a spot in next year's competition.

The round of 16 is in a new, tennis-like seeding bracket for the knockout stage in the enlarged competition format.

As the 10th-placed team in the final league standings, Dortmund will have to be drawn against either the 7th or 8th seeded team, Lille or Aston Villa.

Madrid's next opponent will be Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen.

PSG thrashed French rivals Brest 7-0, to rack up a 10-0 lead in aggregate, and will now face either Liverpool or Barcelona in the round of 16.

The top eight teams, including Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico, Leverkusen, Lille and Villa, have jumped the playoffs round and will be seeded in the round of 16 draw.

They'll host the second leg matches on the 12th-13th of March (Australian Eastern Daylight Time).

The unseeded teams will host the first legs on March 5-6 (Australian Eastern Daylight Time).