Man City Leave Champions League Past Behind to Beat Roma and Advance to Last 16

Quite how Manchester City have made it through to the last 16 of this season Champions League will remain one of football’s great mysteries for some time.

Without a win from their first four games and staring down the barrel of another defeat with five minutes remaining against Bayern Munich on Matchday 5, two late Sergio Aguero goals put the Germans to the sword before a glorious 2-0 win in Rome in the final game sealed their passage to the knockout phase for the second consecutive season.

And they won’t care one bit they go through with just eight points. In 2011-12, they finished with 10 from an unfathomably tough group and were still dumped out. Like a great long-distance runner, Manuel Pellegrini’s side have timed their sprint finish to absolute perfection, and the insipid, disjointed performances that characterised their first five matches of this season’s competition will now be forgotten.

City needed something special to kick-start a love affair with Europe’s premier tournament, and in the last two matches they’ve got it. There had been little during their three-and-a-bit campaigns to whet the appetite of their supporters, who have made no secret of their indifference toward the competition, until Aguero’s double against Bayern and now this wonderfully astute display against Roma in front of a hostile crowd.

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Pellegrini’s side were patient throughout, fully aware they possessed more quality than Roma, and that patience paid off. Rather than going at the Italian side aggressively straight from the kick-off as they have, rather naively, in other European matches, they bided their time, confident their superiority would shine through eventually. And so it proved. 

Their dominance was clear for the majority of the match, save for the first 10 minutes, and it should also be noted that City completed their impressive win bereft of their biggest names.

Vincent Kompany was given as much time as possible to prove his fitness but wasn’t risked, and David Silva was only fit enough for the bench. With Yaya Toure suspended and Sergio Aguero out for at least a month with a knee injury, it left City without their four best players in the biggest match of their season to date. What was already a difficult, high-pressure game in an intimidating atmosphere, suddenly seemed much harder.

But in their absence it was time for others to shine.

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Samir Nasri, fresh from his Man of the Match display against Everton on Saturday, was superb again, and it was he who opened the scoring in the second half with his first goal of the season. James Milner made a clever run to take a defender with him, creating space for the Frenchman to exploit. His finish was wonderful—a powerful shot that flew past Morgan De Sanctis and went in off the post.

And Pablo Zabaleta, who defensively had undergone a serious test, particularly in the first half with Gervinho looking menacing, wrapped up the win after being teed up by Nasri late on.

City’s comfortable victory coupled with Bayern’s 3-0 win over CSKA Moscow in Munich meant they would qualify with room to spare.

But it wasn’t just those who scored goals who impressed. Fernandinho, time and again, would nick the ball in midfield before driving at the Roma defence, causing chaos in the process. City’s return to form has coincided with with him finding his best football again and when he’s playing like he is at the moment, there are few better box-to-box midfielders in world football.

Martin Demichelis and Eliaquim Mangala were stoic at the back, Fernando was an able deputy to Fernandinho in midfield and Jesus Navas was once again a great outlet during much of the first half. As much as some people want to paint City as a one-man team, it was clear tonight that, even without their 19-goal striker, they possess quality in every department.

Afterwards, Pellegrini told reporters (via  the club' website):

"

We won the game today in the same way we have done over the last three weeks.

We have recovered our normal performance. We are playing well and we are similar to the team that won the title last year.

We are a solid team. We recovered the ball well and all the team were working together with and without the ball.



Before the game, I spoke with the players and I told them I thought we played the worst game of the season against Roma in Manchester.

Tonight though, I had a lot of trust in what we could do. We were sure that, by playing the way we have been in the last few weeks, we could win and we did.

I said yesterday I don't want to complain about the players that are not in the team.

We have had to play without Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, David Silva and Sergio Aguero and it is difficult but this team deserves more credit than the press give.

We are not just about Sergio. Now he is not playing, the team have qualified to the last 16, playing the same way we do in the Premier League.

"

Julian Finney/Getty Images

After some early struggles, City are undoubtedly finding their best form again. Their results in the league have picked up, and, somehow, they find themselves in the draw for the last 16 of Europe's most prized piece of silverware. Their Champions League struggles have now been forgotten, and there's a real momentum building. 

Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and will be following the club from a Manchester base throughout the 2014-15 season. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter: @RobPollard.