UEFA Champions League: Manchester City survive scare; Superb Diaz powers Real

Copenhagen: Kevin De Bruyne scored one goal and produced two assists as Manchester City maintained their perfect start to their UEFA Champions League defence with an impressive 3-1 win in the first leg of their last-16 tie at FC Copenhagen.

Tuesday night’s win means will take a two-goal advantage into the second leg of our Champions League Round of 16 tie with FC Copenhagen on March 6.

Kevin De Bruyne got the scoring underway for the European champions in the 10th minute with a low strike on his first Champions League start of the season.

Copenhagen grabbed a surprise equalizer in the 34th minute when Magnus Mattsson curled home but City regained the lead shortly before half-time thanks to a deft Bernardo Silva finish.

Phil Foden topped the night off in added time with a powerful hit beyond goalkeeper Kamil Grabara.

The victory marks City’s 10th consecutive win in European football – a run comprising of nine Champions League successes stretching back to last season’s semifinal and including the UEFA Super Cup penalty shootout win over Sevilla.

Pep Guardiols’s side’s run of nine straight victories in Champions League is the longest ever for any English side while Foden’s late goal means City are the first side in Champions League history to score three or more goals in seven successive games.

It also extends City’s unbeaten run in the Champions League to 20 matches and their current sequence of victories to 11 in all competitions.

Brahim Diaz's sole goal was enough for clinical Real Madrid to secure a 1-0 away victory over a resilient RB Leipzig in the first leg of  League last 16 tie.

Leipzig started brightly on home soil and thought they had opened the scoring with just two minutes played, but Benjamin Sesko's goal was ruled offside.

Real broke the deadlock against the run of play on 49 minutes, after Diaz shrugged off two Leipzig defenders before curling the ball past keeper Peter Gulacsi into the top-left corner.

Leipzig will travel to Madrid for the second leg on March 6. IANS

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