Man City delivered best first-half display in three years - Guardiola
Soccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Manchester City's Raheem Sterling in action with Shakhtar Donetsk's Maycon REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
(Reuters) - Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has hailed his team's performance in the first 45 minutes of their 3-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League as the best football they have played during his reign at the club.
City, who false-started in the campaign with a defeat at home to Olympique Lyonnais, strolled to a convincing victory at the Metalist Stadium with first-half goals from David Silva and Aymeric Laporte.
Substitute Bernardo Silva added a third in the second half.
Soccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola during the match REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
"Our first half was the best first-half performance we have played in the last three seasons," Guardiola, who joined City at the start of the 2016-17 campaign, told reporters.
"We created a lot of chances and didn't concede any until the last few minutes.
"We were under a lot of pressure after the defeat by Lyon but now we are in a good position. We can control our destiny now."
Soccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Manchester City's Raheem Sterling in action with Shakhtar Donetsk's Mykola Matviyenko REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
The victory meant the Premier League champions moved to the top of Group F standings with six points, a point ahead of Lyon.
(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
Soccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Manchester City's David Silva in action with Shakhtar Donetsk's Mykola Matviyenko REUTERS/Gleb GaranichSoccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Shakhtar Donetsk's Andriy Pyatov reacts after Manchester City's David Silva scored their first goal REUTERS/Gleb GaranichSoccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Manchester City's Aymeric Laporte scores their second goal REUTERS/Gleb GaranichSoccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Manchester City's Aymeric Laporte celebrates scoring their second goal REUTERS/Gleb GaranichSoccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Manchester City's Fernandinho in action with Shakhtar Donetsk's Viktor Kovalenko REUTERS/Gleb GaranichSoccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Manchester City's Riyad Mahrez shoots at goal REUTERS/Gleb GaranichSoccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Shakhtar Donetsk's Ismaily in action with Manchester City's Riyad Mahrez REUTERS/Gleb GaranichSoccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Manchester City's David Silva scores their first goal REUTERS/Gleb GaranichSoccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Manchester City's Bernardo Silva celebrates scoring their third goal REUTERS/Gleb GaranichSoccer Football - Champions League - Group Stage - Group F - Shakhtar Donetsk v Manchester City - Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv, Ukraine - October 23, 2018 Manchester City's Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva celebrate after the match REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
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