Manchester City put three past Gothenburg to reach last-16 of the Champions League

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Manchester City 3 (agg 5) Gothenburg 0 (agg 1) Winger Lauren Hemp said she could not believe how well she had struck her opening goal, after her eye-catching, long-range effort helped Manchester City overcome Swedish side Gothenburg in the Women’s Champions League. Hemp produced the best moment of the second leg to break the deadlock on the night, cutting in from the left wing and superbly finding the net with a curling effort. It was her second goal in Europe and one of the finest in her fledgling career. "It was pretty crazy," she said. "I don't think I've shot from that distance for City before. You could probably see from my celebration, I was standing there in shock. "It happened in slow motion for me. I was thinking 'go on, go on, go on' and it went in and it was crazy." Leading 2-1 from 9 December’s first leg, in which they had to come from behind after a sloppy start, the English side produced a mature, accomplished display to comfortably reach the last-16. Manchester City, who were semi-finalists in both 2016-17 and 2017-18, suffered disappointing exits to Spanish side Atletico Madrid in the last 32 and last 16 stages of their past two campaigns respectively. However, they have high hopes for a lengthy run in Europe this term and signed two of last season’s winners, defenders Lucy Bronze and Alex Greenwood, from holders Lyon in September. It was never guaranteed to be an easy task to eliminate the Swedish league champions, whom German giants Bayern Munich had needed the away goals rule to get past at this stage of the competition last season. But City were the stronger side in possession and were rewarded with Hemp's fine goal. The PFA Young Player of the Year put in a lively display before being rested for the final half an hour, as she continued her steady return to full match sharpness after suffering a hamstring injury prior to the start of the season. Gothenburg, whose home city will host 16 May 2021’s final, were kept in the tie by their goalkeeper Jennifer Falk, who produced an excellent save to tip Alex Greenwood’s speculative, long-range free-kick on to the crossbar. The hard-working visitors’ fading hopes of a progressing were then extinguished when the hosts’ substitute Georgia Stanway, 21, poked in from three yards on the rebound, after Ellen White’s initial close-range effort had been saved. Stanway added her second of the night and City’s third moments later in similar fashion, again tucking in after White was denied. Gareth Taylor’s side will have to wait until 16 February’s draw, to learn their next opponents, but they will be among the eight seeded teams and will therefore avoid seven-time champions Lyon in March’s last 16. Taylor may be without in-form midfielder Caroline Weir for Sunday’s trip to Birmingham City, after withdrawing her as a precaution at half-time against Gothenburg. Taylor explained: “It was just a bit of a tight hamstring. We’ve had quite a heavy load [of games lately]. Hopefully we might be able to get her for the weekend but, if not, it’s not the worst time to get this kind of thing [with the Christmas break coming up].” Match details Manchester City (4-1-2-3): Roebuck; Bronze, Houghton, Greenwood (Bonner 73), Stokes; Walsh; Mewis (Scott, 72), Weir (Coombs, 46); Beckie (Stanway, 62), White, Hemp (Kelly, 62). Subs not used: Barnsley (g), Benameur (g), Morgan Yellow cards: None Red cards: None Gothenburg (4-4-2): Falk; Koivisto, Curmark (Junttila Nelhage, 85), Kullberg, Roddar; Wijk, Angeldal, Boe Risa, Csiki (Andersson, 65); Hammarlund, Blackstenius (Ijeh, 90) Subs not used: Geurts, Svedberg, Folds Yellow cards: Wijk Red cards: None Referee: Katalin Kulcsar (Hungary)

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