Europa League verdict: Manchester City 2 FC Timisoara 0 (agg 3-0)

City qualified for the Europa League group stages with goals from Shaun Wright-Phillips and Dedryck Boyata in a game so comfortable it often resembled a pre-season friendly. The Romanians’ packed defence and lack of ambition made it a game of patience for City before the seemingly inevitable breakthrough arrived.

City’s best performers were a central quartet of Kompany, Boyata, de Jong and Vieira who exerted total control over procedings. In our previous European campaign under Mark Hughes, we made heavy weather of the early rounds by failing to dominate teams. There was none of that here.

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Player ratings: Manchester City v FC Timisoara

Hart – With only a couple of routine saves to make, there’s only his distribution to rate: short range good, long kicks need to find their targets better. 6

Richards – Once again solid in defence, this was another chance to focus on attacking. Took up decent positions but the delivery was mixed. Looked in need of a trick to go past an opponent. 6

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