See full coverage of the 2015-16 Champions League with the latest scores, fixtures and highlights
- Sergio Aguero opened the scoring for Manchester City in the 15th minute after linking up with Yaya Toure
- David Silva doubled the lead shortly before the half-time interval to enhance City's chance of progression
- Dynamo Kiev midfielder Vitaliy Buyalskiy reduced the deficit with deflected effort past goalkeeper Joe Hart
- Toure reopened two-goal lead for his side with delightful curling effort past Oleksandr Shovkovskiy
- Manchester City host Dynamo Kiev in the second leg at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, March 15
Breakthrough night? It may be Yaya Toure’s parting gift to the club. The third goal here, scored with a minute remaining, should be enough to put Manchester City into the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time.
Will Toure be around to reap the rewards of this run under Pep Guardiola next year? Unlikely.
So make the most of it. The way he cut inside, the beautiful curling shot. It was a goal from the minute it left his boot, and it did for Kiev the way his team-mates could not. The result may suggest a City masterclass away from home, but the performance wasn’t quite there.
Yaya Toure (left) rushes to celebrate with goalscorer Sergio Aguero after the Argentina forward opens the lead in the 15th minute
Aguero is congratulated by his Manchester City team-mates following the former Atletico Madrid man's crucial away goal in Ukraine
Manchester City midfielder Fernando (right) joins his team-mates in celebrating Aguero's early first-half goal against Dynamo Kiev
David Silva doubles his side's lead with a simple finish from close range following fine play by team-mates Aguero and Raheem Sterling
Vitaliy Buyalskiy sticks his arms out wide after his deflected strike evaded the right hand of Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart
Manchester City midfielder Toure (far right) reopened his side's two-goal lead with a curling effort in the 90th minute
City should have coasted into the quarter-finals, the second leg a formality. Instead, until Toure scored the third, they had left themselves with a little to do against a Dynamo Kiev side that will be readier and fitter by next month, despite considerable deficiencies.
Somehow, having been two goals clear and completely in control at half-time, City ended up shielding a single-goal lead for much of the second half and clinging on.
Kiev, against all expectations, dominated after half-time and pulled a goal back through Vitaliy Buyalskiy after 59 minutes. City remained in the box seat but failed to convince that they could progress if paired with a team of true quality in the next round.
They will need the luck of the draw again, which they got here by drawing Dynamo, a team who prepared for their biggest European fixture in close to two decades with two months off.
That would certainly explain City’s control of the first half, which was close to complete. They went a goal up after 15 minutes, added a second after 40 and looked set fair to put the tie to bed at the halfway stage. At which point, Kiev manager Sergei Rebrov must have read the riot act in the dressing-room because the team that came out after the interval was an entirely different proposition.
So were City. Required to put in the hard yards against a team that has talent, once they have shaken off the sluggishness, they came up short. By the end, Kiev will have felt unlucky not to have drawn.
It was, as ever, Sergio Aguero who separated the sides. He scored his 16th goal in 17 Champions League starts to set City on their way. It was a goal that highlighted the rust in Kiev’s ranks.
David Silva took a corner which was headed down by Toure, and Aguero had the time and space to run onto it, get the target lined up, and shoot past goalkeeper Oleksandr Shovkovskiy. It was Aguero who set up the second, holding the ball up magnificently before bringing Raheem Sterling into the game. His cross was perfect for Silva at the far post and left the Spaniard with the simplest conversion.
And then, somehow, it all drifted away. Local hero Andriy Yarmolenko — who has disappointed Liverpool, and others, by signing a new contract — brought his side back into the game, constantly getting the better of Gael Clichy. And then, a stroke of good fortune. Nicolas Otamendi’s headed clearance went straight to Buyalskiy, and his shot clipped the defender on the return to take it past Joe Hart.
The two squared up again in the 79th minute, this time Hart coming out on top with a world-class one-handed save that denied Buyalskiy an equaliser.
It is 17 years since Dynamo Kiev last visited the knockout stages of the Champions League, and December since they last played a competitive game. Both absences showed in a first half that left the Olympic Stadium in stunned silence.
It could not have been much quieter here, even if UEFA had carried out their initial plan to close the stadium as a punishment for racist chanting. The organisers relented — a one-game closure, already served, rather than three — and decided to fight racism with announcements, slogans and messages from celebrity footballers instead
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