Raheem Sterling, Fernandinho and Wilfried Bony strike for soaring Man City

Manuel Pellegrini’s side defeated reigning Europa League champions Sevilla, 3-1 in Spain. They lead Italian champions Juventus by one point with the two set to meet in Turin in three weeks’ time. Aguero’s deputy Wiflried Bony added to the early strikes by Raheem Sterling and Fernandinho to seal a 3-1 win that sealed the English side’s passage into the last 16 with two games to spare.

Manchester City have been flying high in more ways than one over the past 24 hours as they travelled back to England following their crucial win against Sevilla.

UEFA launched disciplinary proceedings against City under regulations concerning the “disruption of the competition anthem” after fans jeered while it was played before the Premier League club’s 2-1 home win over Sevilla on October 21.

Sevilla’s Benoit Tremoulinas scored for the hosts in the 25th, only for former Sevilla fan favorite Jesus Navas to pass for Wilfried Bony to take City’s third in the 36th.

City now have games against Borussia Monchengladbach and Juventus left in their group to try and finish top of Group D. They’re currently sat in first position on nine points having beaten Sevilla twice and Monchengladbach once.

While progressing from the group stage has been a major hurdle for City in the past, last season they made it through only to face Barcelona in the first knock-out stage and duly made a swift exit.

“When we beat Chelsea this year we were very balanced, and in the result against Newcastle – even when we’ve won big we’ve been balanced – so its definitely what we’ve achieved this year that we didn’t last year”.

Kompany told BT Sport: “Our game plan was flawless”.

Pellegrini said: “I’m very happy because I think we played a very complete game in all senses – physically and tactically, and we had good possession of the ball”.

“I don’t think technique is the whole reason”. “I think in the first game you saw that we have a good team when we play for each other”, said the winger. It was important to make changes because I was not happy with how we were playing. “I have a team and I want to play as we did in Seville”.

“We are not going to try to draw the game, we are going to try and win the game from the beginning”, Pellegrini said.

‘Not all of English football is bad and we brought the best of it today to defeat a very strong team.