Champions League: Manchester teams draw mixed results in Europe

In a huge night of European football for the city of Manchester, one team advanced out of the group stage of the Champions League, while the other was left licking its wounds on Tuesday.

Rahim Sterling lifted a listless Manchester City with two stunning goals in the 80th and 81st minutes to propel them into the top of Group D in a 4-2 win against Mönchengladbach at the Etihad.

The surprising 1-0 win by Sevilla over Juventus dropped the Italians into second place of Group D.

“It’s a brilliant thing for the boys, we worked hard and I think we deserved it at the end of the day. Hopefully we can carry it on to the last 16,” Sterling told UK broadcaster BT Sport after the match.

Meanwhile, at a wild match in Wolfsburg, Manchester United was ousted from the group stage after a 3-2 loss to the Germans.

Brazilian defender Naldo scored the opener and the winner for Wolfsburg, which won Group B handily. PSV Eindhoven’s 2-1 come-from-behind win against CSKA Moscow relegated United to the UEFA Europa League.

The match started with a lively first half. United’s wunderkind Anthony Martial – whose $55.5 million price tag from Monaco was questioned at the start of the season – opened up the match with a 10th-minute strike from the left flank that rocked Wolfsburg goalkeeper Diego Benaglio

But the lead lasted just three minutes before Naldo equalized on a skillful volley off a set-piece from the German side.

Former Switzerland international Benaglio saved a point-blank header in the 26th minute from Marouane Fellaini, launching a stunning reversal of momentum. Only moments later, a world-class display of touch-passing between Julian Draxler and Max Kruse led to an easy tap-in for Portuguese winger Vieirinha to take the lead 2-1.

Juan Mata was narrowly positioned offside which ruled out a Jesse Lingard goal just before halftime. Although the referee signaled for a goal, Manchester United exhalations were deflated when a late flag was controversially raised by the linesman – ruling that Mata interfered with Benaglio’s line of vision.

Replays validated the decision from the officials.

“I think it’s a crazy match. We scored goals. They are canceling goals,” said United manager Louis van Gaal in a post-match interview – pointing to the fact that Wolfsburg players complained right after Mata’s offside ruling, leaving the linesman in agreement.

United’s captain Chris Smalling appeared to be injured for the final 10 minutes, though he stayed on the pitch.

“We had the chance to win, I think we fought for the win, but with 10 men at the end we could do more than what we have done,” Van Gaal added.

United keeper David de Gea kept his team in the match in the second half with a leaping backhanded deflection to counter André Schürrle’s long-distance lob that came against the run of play. Schürrle was denied again moments later, this time by de Gea’s leaping block in front of the net.

United briefly saw light at the end of the tunnel late in the second half when word came in that CSKA had scored to lead against PSV. An own goal from Guilavogui in the 82nd minute drew the score at 2-2, before Naldo put the match away moments later.

Van Gaal may have welcomed the change of scenery initially, after his side was recently booed by home fans. The Old Trafford faithful have been frustrated by the team’s lack of scoring chances, voicing their displeasure in last month’s 1-0 win over CSKA and again at Saturday’s goalless draw against West Ham.

Wayne Rooney broke his 404-minute goalless drought against CSKA but sat out Tuesday night with a lingering ankle problem, joining Phil Jones, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo, Antonio Valencia and Luke Shaw on the long list of currently injured Red Devils.

United’s Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger weighed in on his club’s current brand of football in a pre-match interview with BT Sport.

“You know it’s a mix of everything, it’s not only the strikers who shoot on goal. It’s everyone on the team who is on the pitch can score a goal, and it’s how we build up the chance, and how we make the last pass to make it easy on the guy to score a goal,” said Schweinsteiger, who faced Wolfsburg often with his former club Bayern Munich. “I know we have players who have the ability, but we have to show it for every game.”

Wolfsburg was set up in 1945, as a successor to the Volkswagen corporate club, and is intertwined with the company and its hometown’s identity. The auto industry giant owns the German Cup champions – pumping about €85 million ($97 million) a year into the club.

With its brand badly damaged by the diesel emissions scandal, Volkswagen may be reluctant to sacrifice the valuable marketing exposure it gets from subsidizing Wolfsburg, and its other soccer partnerships (it has a stake in German league champion Bayern through its subsidiary Audi).

Meanwhile, not finishing at the top of the Premier League since 2013 hasn’t hurt Manchester United’s value: Earlier this year the club was anointed the fifth most valuable sports team in the world by Forbes at $3.1 billion.

Bayern Munich topped the list in Germany, standing 11th in the world at a value of $2.35 billion. Real Madrid topped the list at $3.26 billion. Seven soccer teams were included in the Forbes top 50 list.

In Tuesday’s other action, Real Madrid beat Swedish club Malmo 8-0 to top Group A with five wins and a draw, equaling the competition’s largest group stage win.

Cristiano Ronaldo netted four times against the Swedes to be the first player to pass 10 goals in the group stage – the Portugal star ended with 11 – and extend his tournament scoring record to 88.

France striker Karim Benzema scored a hat-trick to move equal eighth on the all-time European list with 46 goals, alongside Eusebio and Filippo Inzaghi.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored his 45th in the competition as Paris Saint-Germain defeated Shakhtar 2-0 to consolidate second place.

The Ukrainian side went down to the Europa League after finishing above Malmo on goal difference.

Atletico Madrid topped Group C after winning 2-1 at second-placed Benfica, while Galatasaray earned a consolation spot in the Europa League following a 1-1 draw at home to Astana.

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