Man. City 2-1 Dortmund: Foden snatches City win

Manchester City secured the first-leg advantage in their UEFA Champions League quarter-final thanks to Phil Foden's last-gasp goal.

Match in brief

Foden’s 90th-minute strike gave Josep Guardiola’s side a narrow lead in this last-eight showdown with Dortmund. His vital intervention came more than 70 minutes after Kevin De Bruyne had started and finished a City counterattack for the opener. When Foden rolled the ball across goal to reach Riyad Mahrez beyond the back post, the latter's cutback found De Bruyne arriving in the box, and the captain shifted it neatly into his stride to steer home.

A threat throughout, Dortmund levelled late on as Marco Reus latched onto Erling Haaland’s through ball to slot past Ederson and seemingly snatch a draw for BVB. However, Foden’s subsequent close-range finish, teed up by İlkay Gündoğan following a lasered pass by De Bruyne, sealed the hosts' victory in Manchester.

Player of the Match: Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)

"A goalscorer, but more importantly at the centre of everything good for City tonight, with and without the ball. He brought purpose to City's play, intent and threat, with his constant and energetic attacking play. Another false nine display that showed great understanding and space awareness in his performance."
Roberto Martínez, UEFA Technical Observer

Check out every official UEFA Champions League Player of the Match.

Matthew Howarth, Man. City reporter

Foden’s late, late goal gives City the slenderest of platforms ahead of next week’s second leg, but this was far from convincing from Guardiola’s charges. The Citizens will need to cut out the individual errors that threatened to offer Dortmund a route back into the tie, culminating in Reus’s away goal.

James Thorogood, Dortmund reporter

Head coach Eden Terzić called for Dortmund to “challenge the best team in the world” and his men delivered. Foden’s winner will hurt, but the away goal is the silver lining BVB have to focus on heading into the second leg and is almost as crucial as Haaland not getting booked. If they can get Jadon Sancho fit in time, Dortmund will have chances again in the return match.

Reaction

Josep Guardiola, Man. City coach: "We are going to Dortmund to win the game. In the first half tonight, we were not clever with the ball. The second half was much better and we had two or three clear chances to score a second or third when it was 1-0. To play in the positions we want to, we have to have good build-up play. We have another chance next week."

Reus struck in the 84th minuteGetty Images

Eden Terzić, Dortmund coach: “We knew they’d be on the ball a lot and for long periods of time, but we wanted to try and determine where they would have the ball. We managed to do that very well. We kept their chances to a minimum and posed a threat ourselves when going forward. It was evenly-matched so we’re disappointed with the result in the end.”

Kevin De Bruyne, Man. City midfielder: “I can’t remember the build-up to the first goal; it was good play by Riyad [Mahrez] to set it up. I was happy with it and happy to help the team get the result. Now we need to focus on getting the job done in the second leg."

Jude Bellingham, Dortmund midfielder: "We frustrated them well when they had the ball. At times, they found it hard to break us down. We used the ball well and efficiently. Our goal was a brilliant bit of play to put Marco [Reus] in and a great finish. We're still disappointed to concede so late, but we'll use that away goal in the second leg and see what we can do."

Rodri, Man. City midfielder: “They play so narrow, with very few spaces between the lines. That gives them opportunities to counterattack. They made things very difficult. Maybe it wasn’t our best game, but we’ll do everything to go through.”

Key stats

Kevin De Bruyne won another Player of the Match awardUEFA via Getty Images

• When scoring tonight, Kevin De Bruyne had six goal involvements (two goals and four assists) in just 276 minutes of UEFA Champions League football this season.

• Man. City are unbeaten in their last 13 UEFA Champions League home matches (W12 D1) – and unbeaten in the competition this season (W8 D1).

• Man. City have won 11 and drawn one of their last 12 matches against German opposition in the UEFA Champions League.

Line-ups

Man. City: Ederson; Walker, Stones, Rúben Dias, João Cancelo; Rodri, Gündoğan; Mahrez, De Bruyne, Foden; Bernardo Silva (Jesus 59)

Dortmund: Hitz; Morey (Meunier 81), Akanji, Hummels, Guerreiro; Bellingham, Emre Can, Dahoud (Delaney 81); Knauff (Reyner 63), Haaland, Reus

What's next?

The quarter-final second leg takes place in Germany on Wednesday 14 April. Before then, Dortmund face Stuttgart in the Bundesliga, while Man. City take on Leeds with the aim of extending their lead at the Premier League summit.