After a goalless first leg, City welcomed Greek side Aris to Manchester for the Europa League second leg today (24 February) in 2011. It was a night when Edin Dzeko, a recent signing, netted in both the 7th and 12th minutes to give the Blues a strong early lead.
Yaya Toure made it 3-0 in the 75th minute when a corner found its way out to him 30 yards from goal and his powerful low effort deflected off Ricardo Faty to leave the Aris ‘keeper stranded.
After the game David Silva talked of Dzeko: ‘He’s a great player and he’s going to come in very useful for us. He did a good job today, scoring his goals, and let’s hope he gets a lot more. Little by little he’s finding his feet, and I hope he adapts quickly to get on the same wavelength as the team. We’re building a good team and let’s see if we can win a trophy.’
Aris’s midfielder Juan Carlos Toja admitted conceding two early goals disrupted his team’s plans: ‘We wanted to defend better and make it hard for them to score a goal and look to frustrate them. Unfortunately we made a mistake in the opening minutes for the first goal and then lost another one and to go two goals behind against a team like this is very difficult because they’ve a lot of quality.’
The victory meant that City would face Dynamo Kyiv in the Europa League round of 16.
Gary James' Football Archive 