Pep Guardiola often bemoans the schedule so for Manchester City to enter the last 16 directly and miss the home-and-away knockout play-off round will please.
The manager, though, was clearly unhappy with the team performance that set up the victory and progression due to a troubling sluggishness and doing what annoys him most: failing to play the high-octane way that he drills into his players.
Erling Haaland’s opener – only a second in the striker’s last eight matches – and Rayan Cherki’s second, each before the interval, were slickly taken but they derived from slack Galatasaray defensive work.
Throughout, Guardiola yelled at the side to step up concentration and tempo but for some reason this did not occur. As a perfectionist this will trouble him, yet for now, City have avoided two extra games, squeezing through in eighth place, which is a definite boon.
On a night of myriad permutations Guardiola’s brief to City was the same as always: go out there and win. His players began in a stadium made noisy by the vociferous travelling support who nearly witnessed Haaland score in front of the 2,600 fans in their section behind Ugurcan Cakir’s goal.
