Aguero on top form as Man City cruise past Porto

Manchester City 4 FC Porto 0 Sergio Aguero led from the front as Manchester City bulldozed title-holders Porto to reach the last 16 of the Europa League last night.

After scoring the winner in the first leg the Argentine forward bagged City's opening goal just 19 seconds into the match, before turning creator for Edin Dzeko's 76th minute second.

In the build up to the match, City manager Roberto Mancini had been keen to stress the importance of the Europa League in the club's plans this year. The Italian even went as far as to suggest it was as important as the Premier League.

So the manager would have been delighted to see his side firing on all cylinders in the competition. The newly-returned Carlos Tevez, however, may have been less pleased with the manner in which his team won. Despite performing a dramatic U-turn and ending a 5 month sulk with an apology this week, Tevez is still not guaranteed a place in the City side, particularly not with his countryman and club rival Aguero in such imperious form.

Aguero had been key to City securing a 2-1 win in the away leg of the tie and last night he was even more of a threat. He forced errors from defenders, drifted into unmarked space and made a positive contribution with almost every touch, including his first.

Although a defensive error from Nicolas Otamendi was partly to blame for allowing Yaya Toure to thread a pass through to Aguero for his opener, it's indicative of the Argentine's form that he kept his composure when firing a low shot home with just 19 seconds on the clock.

City were in control throughout, and the visitors never quite found the killer blow to match their build-up play, despite the looming physicality of Hulk in attack, and City were able to bat away whatever was thrown at them.

With 15 minutes left in the tie City landed a knockout blow with yet more help from Aguero, who picked out substitute Dzeko with a neat pass and the Bosnian steered home.

It was all too much for Porto defender Rolando, who protested the goal so vocally earned himself a second second yellow card and was sent off. This gave City a telling numerical advantage and, with the wind in their sails, Mancini's troops ran riot in the closing minutes with late goals from Silva and David Pizarro.

Perhaps it was the fact that the game took place on a Wednesday night rather than the traditional Thursday that confused Mancini, but afterwards he compared the Europa League to its bigger brother. "We want to try to go to the final if possible," he said. "But it will be difficult because the Europa League has top squads - Manchester United, Valencia, Schalke... it is like the Champions League". ·