MANCHESTER, England -- Its taken three frustrating seasons but Manchester City has finally reached the knockout stage of the Champions League for the first time -- and the English team achieved it in style on Tuesday. Alvaro Negredo scored a hat trick and strike partner Sergio Aguero grabbed the other two goals as City crushed CSKA Moscow 5-2 to guarantee a top-two finish in Group D. After splashing out hundreds of millions of pounds on big-name players over the past five years, City was desperate to transfer its recent domestic success to the European stage and make a dent in the Champions League. Roberto Mancini failed to get City out of its group in the past two seasons, though, and was fired. His successor, Manuel Pellegrini, has succeeded at the first time of asking. "The minimum target was to qualify for the next round but its not the only target," Pellegrini said. "Im sure the team we play (in the last 16) will not be very happy to play against us." Not with Negredo and Aguero in this kind of form. A debate is raging in England about the Premier Leagues top strike partnership. Most plump for Luis Suarez-Daniel Sturridge at Liverpool or Robin van Persie-Wayne Rooney at Manchester United, but the Negredo-Aguero combination is giving them a run for their money. In putting City 2-0 up after a third-minute penalty and a sumptuous turn and shot in the 20th, Aguero became Citys leading European scorer with 13 goals and has now scored in six straight games. Negredo made it 3-0 in the 30th minute after tapping in Agueros teasing cross, slotted home from Samir Nasris deft lay-off in the 51st for 4-1 and then rounded off a satisfying night for the hosts with a headed goal off the last touch of the game. "Aguero is in a great moment, not only because hes scoring but because the whole team is playing offensive football and thats important," said Pellegrini, whose side came into the game off a 7-0 thrashing of Norwich in the Premier League on Saturday. Such was Citys swashbuckling attacking play, admittedly up against a feeble CSKA defence, that it almost took the attention away from what was going on in the crowd. Almost. The behaviour of CSKA fans was under heavy scrutiny in the wake of the first meeting between the sides, a 2-1 win for City two weeks ago that was overshadowed by racist chanting by home supporters that earned the Russian club a partial stadium ban. A small contingent of CSKA fans travelled to Manchester for the return game and, flanked by a mass of stewards, were constantly barracked by City counterparts over what happened in Moscow. Things didnt boil over -- local police said there were no arrests made and no reports of racism -- although officers intervened at one stage and appeared to remove at least one fan, while a smoke bomb appeared to go off during the second half. "We must say thank you to the fans today, they showed the fans of CSKA how to support a team," said City captain Yaya Toure, one of the targets of the racist abuse in Moscow. As the teams emerged from the tunnel for kickoff, stewards also moved quickly to remove a banner put up by City fans that read "Free Pussy Riot" in reference to a Russian punk band, two members of which are serving prison sentences for an irreverent protest against the countrys president, Vladimir Putin. Back on the pitch, City took charge from the first whistle and Aguero was allowed to continue his free-scoring form after David Silva had his heels clipped. Aguero slotted the penalty high into the right-hand corner and was then at his brilliant best for his second, spinning marker Aleksei Berezutski with his first touch after receiving a pass from Nasri before giving himself space to curl low into the bottom corner. It got worse for CSKA, whose failure to press Citys midfield was the source of most of the problems. In the 30th, Aguero was given far too much time and space to thread a cross into the box between goalkeeper and defenders, allowing Negredo an easy tap-in at the far post. However, if there was a blot on the evening, it was the goals Citys defence, which has been vulnerable all season, conceded. Lax defending in first-half injury time saw Pontus Wernbloom feed Seydou Doumbia, who rounded Costel Pantilimon -- again preferred to Joe Hart in goal -- and tapped into an empty net. After Negredo scored his second goal, Doumbia became the third player to grab a brace when he sent Pantilimon the wrong way from the spot in the 71st after being bundled over by Gael Clichy. Negredo had the final say, though, heading in James Milners cross with the games last act. "Its amazing, its history for the club," Toure said. All that remains now is the prize of winning Group D, in which Bayern Munich currently has a three-point lead over City. The pair meet on the final matchday.
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cheap jerseys from china . Wenger took part in his first training session in Montreal on Saturday but returned to school immediately after the session. Ahead of Januarys MLS SuperDraft in Kansas City, the versatile Wenger made it known that he wanted to finish his studies at Duke rather than go straight into full-time professional soccer.CANCUN, Mexico -- Four minutes into Wednesdays Cancun Challenge championship game and Wisconsins Sam Dekker had four points and four rebounds. After 12 minutes, he had eight rebounds and eight points, and the No. 10-ranked Badgers had just scored 18 unanswered points against West Virginia. Dekker finished with a career-high 21 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and Wisconsin beat the Mountaineers 70-63 to remain unbeaten and win the tournament championship. "He hits some big threes," said Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, whose team is off to its best start ever under his stewardship. "I think hes getting better and he hit some big shots for us. He got on the glass, he was pretty active." With 15 assists, Wisconsin (7-0) played team ball -- four players scored in double digits -- while West Virginia (5-2) was led by Eron Harris, with a game-high 27 points and a career-high seven 3-pointers, and Juwan Staten, with 18 points. "He was hunting it down," Ryan said of Harris. "The way he was shooting, it was like, holy smokes. But I thought we forced him into giving it up a few times, more than maybe he was comfortable with." Ben Brust scored 16 points for Wisconsin, Josh Gasser had 11, Frank Kaminsky had 10, and the Badgers made 16 of 17 free-throw attempts. Both teams scored 11 3-pointers and traded treys down the stretch. It was a tight game in the first period until 11:03, when Gasser hit one of his two 3-pointers and sparked an 18-point run that ended with a slam dunk by Dekker, who had eight rebounds in the period. Wisconsin got the ball inside to score 10 points in the paint in the first period, setting up shots with eight assists, while West Virginia was content to shoot from the perimeter and was only 6 of 20 from the floor in the first 12 minutes. Dekker led with eight points in the period and Kaminsky scored seven, including a left-handed bank shot while double-teamed to make the score 25-13. Brust and Gasser each had eight points in the period. Harris led West Virginia with 14 points and Juwan Staten had 12. Harris hit 4 of 9 3-pointers to keep the Mountaineers in contention and helped narrow Wisconsins lead to six with 42 seconds to play in the period.dddddddddddd. After draining a 3 to stop the Wisconsin run and scoring the Mountaineers first points in just over 5 minutes, Harris clapped his hands in an attempt to rally his team. But Wisconsin kept its lead, and Dekker sank two free throws to give the Badgers a 39-31 halftime lead. Wisconsin maintained a seven-point lead in the second half, but West Virginia kept chipping away by going 3 for 3 beyond the arc. Remi Dibo made it a four-point game by hitting a 3-pointer at the 10:16 mark. West Virginia began stepping up its intensity on defence and the game got more physical. The Mountaineers had a chance to make it a two-point game but Kevin Noreen turned the ball over on a bad pass in an alley-oop attempt to Dibo. West Virginia began getting into foul trouble and put Wisconsin into the double bonus with 6:49 to play. Devon Williams and Kevin Noreen were benched with four fouls each, and Wisconsin took advantage of its free-throw attempts. Traevon Jackson hit two to make it 54-46 and Dekker made two to increase the Wisconsin lead to seven with 6:11 to go. West Virginia had its chances but couldnt capitalize when it counted. They got a needed stop, but turned the ball over on a travel. Harris made it a four-point game by hitting two free throws with 3:56 to play, but Wisconsins Jackson replied with a pass inside to Kaminsky for a dunk to defeat the Mountaineers zone and make it 61-55. Then Dekker hit a 3-pointer to make it a nine-point game. Harris responded with a 3 of his own with 2:25 to play, but Dekker hit his third three of night to give Wisconsin a nine-point lead with under a minute to play. Harris hit his seventh 3-pointer with 19.7 seconds to play, but Wisconsins lead was too much to overcome. Wisconsin made it to the finals by beating Bowling Green 88-64 on Thursday, Oral Roberts 76-67 on Saturday and Saint Louis 63-57 on Tuesday. West Virginia beat Georgia Southern 101-68 on Thursday, Presbyterian 88-55 on Saturday and Old Dominion 78-60 on Tuesday.
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