In a huge night of European football for the city of Manchester, one team advanced out of the group stage of the Champions League, while the other was left licking its wounds on Tuesday.
Rahim Sterling lifted a listless Manchester City with two stunning goals in the 80th and 81st minutes to propel them into the top of Group D in a 4-2 win against Mönchengladbach at the Etihad.
The surprising 1-0 win by Sevilla over Juventus dropped the Italians into second place of Group D.
“It’s a brilliant thing for the boys, we worked hard and I think we deserved it at the end of the day. Hopefully we can carry it on to the last 16,” said Sterling to BT Sport after the match.
Meanwhile, at a wild match in Wolfsburg, Manchester United were ousted from the group stage of the Champions League in a 3-2 loss to the Germans.
Brazilian defender Naldo scored the opener and the winner for Wolfsburg, who won Group B handily. PSV Eindhoven’s 2-1 come-from-behind win against CSKA Moscow relegated United to the UEFA Europa League.
The match started with a lively first half. United’s wunderkind Anthony Martial — whose $55.5 million price tag from Monaco was questioned at the start of the season — opened up the match with a 10th minute strike from the left flank that rocked Wolfsburg goalkeeper Diego Benaglio
But the lead lasted just three minutes before Naldo equalized on a skillful volley off a set-piece from the German side.
Former Swiss international Benaglio saved a point-blank header in the 26th minute from Marouane Fellaini, launching a stunning reversal of momentum. Only moments later, a world-class display of touch-passing between Julian Draxler and Max Kruse lead to an easy tap in for Portuguese winger Vieirinha to take the lead 2-1.
Juan Mata was narrowly positioned offside which ruled out a Jesse Lingard goal just before halftime. Although the referee signaled for a goal, Manchester United exhalations were deflated when a late flag was controversially raised by the lineman — ruling that Mata interfered with Benaglio’s line of vision.
Replays validated the decision from the officials.
“I think it’s a crazy match. We scored goals. They are canceling goals,” said United manager Louis van Gaal in a post-match interview –pointing to the fact that Wolfsburg players complained right after Mata’s offside ruling, leaving the lineman in agreement.
United’s captain Chris Smalling appeared to be injured for the final 10 minutes, though he stayed on the pitch.
“We had the chance to win, I think we fought for the win, but with ten men at the end we could do more than what we have done” van Gaal added.
United keeper David de Gea kept his team in the match with a leaping backhanded deflection to counter an André Schürrle long-distance lob that came against the run of play. Schürrle was denied again moments later, this time from a de Gea leaping block in front of the net.
United briefly saw light at the end of the tunnel late in the second half when word came in that CSKA Moscow had scored to lead against PSV Eindhoven. An own goal from Guilavogui in the 82nd minute drew the score at 2-2, before Naldo put the match away moments later.
Van Gaal may have welcomed the change of scenery initially, after his side was recently booed by home fans. The Old Trafford faithful have been frustrated by the team’s lack of scoring chances, voicing their displeasure in last month’s 1-0 win over CSKA Moscow and again at Saturday’s goalless draw against West Ham.
The Champions League win over CSKA broke Wayne Rooney’s 404-minute goalless drought. Rooney sat out on Tuesday night with a lingering ankle problem, joining Phil Jones, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo, Antonio Valencia and Luke Shaw on the long list of currently injured Red Devils.
Manchester United’s Bastian Schweinsteiger, weighed in on his club’s current brand of football in a pre-match interview with BT Sport.
“You know it’s a mix of everything, it’s not only the strikers who shoot on goal. It’s everyone on the team who is on the pitch can score a goal, and it’s how we build up the chance, and how we make the last pass to make it easy on the guy to score a goal,” said Schweinsteiger, who faced Wolfsburg often with his former club Bayern Munich. “I know we have players who have the ability, but we have to show it for every game.”
Wolfsburg was set up in 1945, as a successor to the Volkswagen corporate club, and is intertwined with the company and its hometown’s identity. The auto industry giant owns the German Cup champions — pumping about 85 million euros ($97 million) a year into the club.
With its brand badly damaged by the diesel emissions scandal, Volkswagen may be reluctant to sacrifice the valuable marketing exposure it gets from subsidizing Wolfsburg, and its other soccer partnerships (it has a stake in German league champions Bayern Munich through its subsidiary Audi).
Meanwhile, not finishing at the top of the Premiership since 2013 hasn’t hurt Manchester United value: Earlier this year the club was anointed the fifth most valuable sports team in the world by Forbes at $3.1bn.
Bayern Munich topped the list in Germany, standing 11th in the world at a value of $2.35bn. Real Madrid topped the list at $3.26bn. Seven soccer teams were included in the Forbes top 50 list.
In other action, Real Madrid beat Swedish club Malmo 8-0, while Paris Saint-Germain defeated Shakhtar 2-0.
