Champions League: Man City, ‘M’gladbach cruise as Rostov stuns Ajax

Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach built on commanding first-leg advantages to cruise through the Champions League playoffs on Wednesday, while Russian side Rostov thrashed Ajax 4-1 to reach the group stage for the first time.

City will play a sixth straight season in Europe’s elite competition after beating Steaua Bucharest 1-0 thanks to Fabian Delph’s 56th-minute goal and completing a 6-0 win on aggregate.

Goalkeeper Joe Hart made what could be his last start for City after losing his regular place under new coach Pep Guardiola.

“We have a top manager that the club has wanted a long, long time, and he’s going to have his opinion on things,” said Hart, who was given a rousing reception by City fans and appeared emotional during and at the end of the match.

“It’s a place I love to be,” he added, “but situations occur in football. We’re men, we get on with it.”
Raffael and Thorgan Hazard scored hat tricks as Monchengladbach routed Young Boys 6-1 for a 9-2 win on aggregate, sealing an immediate return to the group stage for the German side.

Both Germany and England will have a full quota of four teams in Thursday’s draw. City, a semifinalist last season, will be one of the second seeds.

Rostov advanced 5-2 on aggregate over Ajax—a four-time European champion—in its first season trying to qualify for the Champions League. FC Copenhagen is back in the group stage for the second time in four years, after scoring an 86th-minute equalizer to draw 1-1 with APOEL and progress 2-1 on aggregate.

Dinamo Zagreb was the last team to go through, beating Salzburg 2-1 after extra time to advance 3-2 on aggregate. The Croatian team equalized in the 87th minute through Junior Fernandes to take the match to extra time before El Arabi Hilal Soudani grabbed the winner in the 95th minute.

City did the damage with a 5-0 win in Romania last week, allowing Guardiola to rest most of his first-choice players including Sergio Aguero—the scorer of a first-leg hat trick.

In an exercise in damage limitation, Steaua played with 10 men behind the ball and limited City to half chances until Jesus Navas cross for Delph to head home.

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