Man City reach Champions League last 16 after Shakhtar draw

Pep Guardiola insisted it was mission accomplished as Manchester City booked ir place in Champions League last 16 for a seventh successive season despite a lacklustre 1-1 draw against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday. Guardiola's side were well below ir best at Etihad Stadium, but Ilkay Gundogan's second half strike put m on course to wrap up first place in Group C with one game to spare. Although Mar Solomon equalised for Shakhtar, Atalanta's win over Dinamo Zagreb ensured City can't be kcked off top spot.

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"We have qualified. We played so good in second half. group st is always tricky but target was to qualify and we have done it," Guardiola said.

"w we have one competition already done - we play last game qualified as first in group - so we can focus on Premier League until we arrive in cups." With group clinched, Guardiola has bonus of being able to rest players for trip to Zagreb on December 11.

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That is especially important as Zagreb fixture comes between vital Premier League matches against Manchester United and Arsenal. While City won't give up ir Premier League title without a fight, Liverpool are in such a strong position that Europe could provide Guardiola's best hope of a major prize this term. Guardiola won Champions League twice as Barcelona boss but last of those triumphs came in 2011. He hasn't gone past quarter-finals with City.

Returning to kckout sts was a first step toward ending that frustrating streak, but Guardiola will kw injury-hit City have plenty of room for improvement.

"Shakhtar have quality players and are well organised and have an extraordinary goalkeeper so we knew it would be difficult," Guardiola added.

"We had a lot of opportunities but at end, 1-1 was eugh to qualify. We did it seven years in a row.

"But this competition in February will be completely different, tougher. We'll see in which conditions we arrive re. This competition is about details."

City made a sloppy start and were almost caught out when a long punt into ir half prompted Ederson to rush off his line. When City keeper completely missed his attempt to clear, Shakhtar's Mateus Tete charged into penalty area, only for Fernandinho to block shot with a superbly timed last-ditch slide. City's limp opening was at least partially due to absence of club's record goalscorer Sergio Aguero, sidelined for several weeks after injuring a thigh in Saturday's win over Chelsea. Gabriel Jesus started in place of Aguero, but Brazilian, who has scored five goals in eight starts this season, was largely anymous.

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Sluggish City

Ponderous for much of half, City gradually found some rhythm and Nicolas Otamendi's header from Angeli's cross forced an agile save from Andriy Pyatov. City have opened talks with Raheem Sterling about a new long-term contract that would reportedly make 24-year-old one of highest-paid players in Premier League. Sterling's place among world's elite is without question, but this wasn't England winger's best night.

City finally conjured a move befitting ir ability, cutting through Shakhtar defence to take lead in 56th minute. Kevin De Bruyne was catalyst with a swift surge and pass into Jesus in Shakhtar area. Jesus did well to control and poke ball across to Gundogan. German midfielder took a touch before slotting into bottom corner from 10 yards.

Even that wasn't eugh to paper over cracks for sluggish City and Shakhtar equalised in 69th minute. Tete slipped his pass to overlapping Dodo and his cut-back from touchline drew a lethargic response from City defence, allowing substitute Solomon to fire home from close-range only four minutes after coming on. David Silva almost restored City's lead seconds later, but substitute's shot was cleared off line by Serhiy Kryvtsov. 

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