MANCHESTER City eased to a 2-0 victory over Borussia Moenchengladbach during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 match Wednesday, extending its winning run to 19 games in all competitions.

The match saw City extend its unbeaten run to 26 games.

City has a huge advantage for the March 16 return leg in Manchester after its Portuguese midfielder Bernardo Silva headed in a pinpoint Joao Cancelo cross in the 29th minute to put the side in front.

Silva then headed on another cross from man of the match Cancelo in the 65th minute for Gabriel Jesus to stab in.

“It was an important win,” Silva told BT Sport after the game. “We know how tough this competition can be. You make a mistake and you’re out, so we tried to play simple, not make mistakes, and control possession as we always do.

“Tonight I was lucky that Joao gave me a great ball. He’s an amazing player. I played with him for seven years when I was at Benfica.

“We are from the same generation and I know him very well, so the connection is good. He knows my timing and I know how good he is on these kind of balls — it was a very good goal.”

Man City has made it as far as the quarterfinal stage in the Champions League for the past three seasons and looks set to do so for a fourth, but hasn’t made it to a semifinal since the side lost to Real Madrid at that stage in 2016 when managed by Manuel Pellegrini.

Meanwhile, Ferland Mendy scored a stunning late winner as Real Madrid clinched a tough victory against 10-man Atalanta.

Mendy popped up with a late winner to earn Real Madrid a 1-0 win over Atalanta.

Real’s task appeared to have been made much easier after Atalanta’s Remo Freuler was sent off in the 17th minute for denying Mendy a goal-scoring opportunity.

Against the 10 men, however, Zinedine Zidane’s side struggled to break down the hosts, and Real had only one shot on target in the rest of the first half.(SD-Agencies)