WATCH: Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Aguero Score in Man City's UCL Rout of Basel
Manchester City is on a quest for a quadruple, and it already appears to have taken one giant step on the road to the toughest trophy of the bunch to win.
Man City is the runaway favorite for the Premier League title, has already booked its ticket to the League Cup final and remains alive in the FA Cup round of 16. As for the Champions League, Pep Guardiola's Premier League leaders opened the round of 16 against Swiss side FC Basel, running out to a 3-0 lead within the first 23 minutes and leaving little suspense for next month's return leg in Manchester after a 4-0 triumph.
Man City was without the injured Gabriel Jesus but was given a boost by Leroy Sane's lightning fast recovery after being on the wrong end of a horrific tackle. Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne have led the way in their absence and continued to factor in on Tuesday, with Ilkay Gundogan also supplying a pair of goals.
Bernardo Silva nearly got City off to a dream start with an early away goal, but he was denied by goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik. The possession battle, as expected, went heavily into Man City's favor.
Basel did have a penalty shout soon after, as Dimitri Oberlin appeared to be taken down by Nicolas Otamendi, but upon further review, the forward went down rather easily.
City got its breakthrough in the 14th minute through Gundogan, who scored on a header off an assist from De Bruyne in the 14th minute.
Bernardo Silva doubled the lead four minutes later with a beautiful volley, chesting the ball to himself before beating Vaclik from close range, putting Man City in full control in the process.
Aguero made it 3-0 in the 23rd minute, putting City on course for the quarterfinals before the half hour even hit.
Basel threatened to get on the scoresheet a few minutes into the second half, but Man City goalkeeper Ederson was up to the task, making a top-notch save to deny Mohamed Elyounoussi's effort.
Gundogan made Basel pay again soon after, scoring City's fourth of the day in the 53rd minute, extending the rout with a curling effort into the top corner.
Here were the lineups for the match:
The second leg of the series will take place March 7 at the Etihad in Manchester.
