Brazil international Gabriel Jesus notched his 23rd goal of the season to send the Blues into the quarter-final of the Champions League as the Los Blancos packed their bags to head home.<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola has praised Gabriel Jesus for downing Real Madrid in the Champions League second-leg, insisting the Manchester City striker\u00a0 “was the man of these two games”.<\/p>\n
City came on protecting a 2-1 first-leg lead when they welcomed Madrid to the Etihad Stadium on Friday night, after a resounding victory at the\u00a0Bernabeu just prior to the coronavirus-enforced break in the season.<\/p>\n
It ws Jesus who scored the equaliser for the Blues in that contest, before winning the penalty which Kevin De Bruyne stepped up to convert to complete a memorable turnaround.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>With Sergio Aguero still out recovering from surgery on a knee injury, the Brazilian forward\u00a0was again asked to lead the line in the return leg,\u00a0and proved clearly to be the crucial difference between both sides once again.<\/p>\n City opened the scoring when Jesus dispossessed an out-of-sorts Raphael Varane of the ball in the Madrid box and teed up Raheem Sterling, who easily then tapped into an empty goalmouth.<\/p>\n A precise Karim Benzema header in t he 28th<\/sup> minute levelled up proceedings, but Jesus was given the final say deep into the second halfmin the 68th<\/sup> minute as he pounced on a short back-pass header from Varane and knocked the ball past the onrushing Thibaut Courtois to put City 4-2 up on aggregate.<\/p>\n Guardiola’s men now look forward eagerly to a quarter-final meeting with Lyon, who took out Juventus, next weekend, and the Spaniard was quick to credit Jesus for his impact over the two legs in his post-match interview.<\/p>\n \u201cThis competition will punish you – but Gabriel made his contribution,\u201d the City boss told reporters. \u201cHe is the best guy at making these kinds of actions.<\/p>\n \u201cGabriel was the man of these two games. He scored in Madrid, won the penalty, and then today he made an assist and scored a goal.<\/p>\n \u201cGabriel always helps with more than goals, but for a striker, it\u2019s important to score. For big players, it\u2019s important to show on the biggest stage.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has done it twice and he made a big step to say: \u2018Here I am, I can win games myself\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Jesus was jubilant yet modest as he desribed City\u2019s victory as \u2018massive\u2019, before admitting that he tries to emulate countryman and Brazil\u00a0legend Ronaldo whenever he steps out onto the pitch.<\/p>\n “I work to be a great striker, I work every day hard to be like Ronaldo\u00a0was,” he said.\u00a0“His quality is different from me but I have to work to be a great striker.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"