UCL: Aguero’s hat-trick sinks Borussia

Sergio Aguero scored a hat-trick as Manchester City outclassed Borussia Moenchengladbach 4-0 in their rearranged Champions League opener at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on Wednesday.

The game had been carried over from Tuesday due to a thunderstorm and Aguero made up for lost time with his second treble of the campaign after his hat-trick against Steaua Bucharest in the play-off round.

Aguero, currently serving a domestic ban, struck twice in the first half and once in the second before giving way to Kelechi Iheanacho, who netted City’s fourth.

It gave Pep Guardiola a handsome victory in his first group-phase game as City manager.

With his former club Barcelona, as well as Celtic, lying in wait in Group C, Guardiola had warned his players that a strong start in the competition was imperative.

City reached the semifinals for the first time last season, while Guardiola, who has won all seven of his games at the helm to date, is bidding to win the tournament for a third time.

It was a third successive defeat against City for Andre Schubert’s Gladbach, who lost twice to the English side in last season’s group stage.

After Tuesday’s postponement, Gladbach left tongue-in-cheek letters of apology to the bosses of the fans who stayed on in Manchester for an extra day on the seats in the away section.

The only change to the two teams announced for Tuesday’s game was City’s inclusion of Ilkay Gundogan in place of David Silva, who was rested “as a precautionary measure”.

Having been sidelined by a knee injury since signing from Borussia Dortmund for £20 million, it was Gundogan’s first outing in a City shirt.

City attacked the game in a manner akin to their slick first-half display in Saturday’s 2-1 win at Manchester United and it took them less than nine minutes to go in front.

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