Pep hails City's best
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.
City strolled to a 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.
"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 and didn't concede any until the last few minutes. We were under pressure after the defeat by Lyon but now we are in a good position. We can control our destiny now."
The victory meant the Premier League champions moved to the top of Group F standings with six points, a point ahead of Lyon.
At the Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid snapped a run of five winless games by earning a 2-1 win against Viktoria Plzen. Yet they were booed off the pitch by their own supporters after an unconvincing performance.
Karim Benzema headed the stuttering triple European champions ahead early but they were fortunate not to concede an equaliser before the break as the Czechs somehow failed to capitalise on three clear opportunities.
Brazilian left back Marcelo got Real's second with a dinked finish in the 55th minute and they then missed a glut of chances before the lead was cut by Patrik Hrosovsky in the 78th minute.
Real held on but failed to answer questions about their form ahead of Sunday's 'Clasico' away to Barcelona.
"We all needed to get a victory today which we deserved to get before," said under-pressure Real coach Julen Lopetegui.
"I can't say whether the crisis is over or not. All I can say is we had gone a lot of games without winning and it was vital we won. Points give you tranquility and we have broken a spell of not winning. Now we have to kick on."
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