3 things we learned from Manchester City’s 5-0 win over Steaua Bucharest in Champions League

It was an easy win that could have been so much more, with Manchester City overcoming two early missed penalties from Sergio Agüero to win in dominating fashion, beating Romanian side Steaua Buchaest 5-0 in Champions League playoff action to all but clinch their qualifying tie.

Agüero missed his penalties in the eighth and 21st minutes of the match, sandwiched around a delightful opening goal from David Silva in the 13th minute. While City did hold that early lead and were running rampant over Steaua’s defense, those misses still led many watching the match to wonder just how City’s confidence was holding up, especially after some nervy moments at the other end. Several mistakes from Fernandinho in midfield and the defenders behind him gave Steaua chances to score, though fortunately for Manchester City they’d fail to convert their chances.

City, however, weren’t going to let many more chances slip by in this match. Agüero was determined to make up for his misses as well, and he gave his team a huge two-goal lead just before halftime with an absolutely gorgeous strike, driving a half-volley low to the far corner from the edge of the penalty area.

That got the momentum rolling entirely Manchester City’s way, and Steaua were pretty well out of the match right after the halftime whistle. A sumptuous assist from Kevin De Bruyne set up Nolito to score his first goal for City, and they were off to the races. Agüero would add two more late in the match to give himself a hat trick despite the missed penalties, and the English side won with the greatest of ease.

With five away goals in hand, this Champions League playoff tie is pretty much over. Few expected that Steaua would beat Manchester City to advance to the Champions League group stage, but most would have expected a result like this to come in the second leg back in the Etihad Stadium in England, not in Romania. Now they’ll be able to take the next match easy and work in a few players who haven’t gotten many minutes yet, which will certainly make the experimental side of Pep Guardiola happy -- and Manchester City fans will certainly be ecstatic over the easy win.

Steaua Bucharest: Florin Nita; Gabriel Enache, Gabriel Tamas, Alin Tosca, Marko Momcilovic; Vlad Achim (Alexandru Bourceanu 46’), Sulley Muniru (Ovidiu Popescu 67’); Adrian Popa, Nicolae Stanciu, Jugurtha Hamroun; Bojan Golubovic (Alexandru Tudorie 46’)

Goals: None

Goals: Silva (13’), Agüero (41’, 78’, 88’), Nolito (49’)

If any player has appeared to blossom playing under Guardiola, it’s De Bruyne. The Belgian attacking mid has been the creative focal point of the side and has performed brilliantly, playing at a higher level than we’ve seen from him before. That quality was at its most obvious on his assist for Nolito’s goal early in the second half, a perfectly weighted ball to lead the Spanish winger to a spot just in front of the goalkeeper, and in a place where his momentum carried him around the keeper for a simple finish. It was a gorgeous ball that got better every time you watched it, and if this is something we’ll be seeing more of from De Bruyne under Guardiola -- well, we’re in for a treat.

That’s perhaps an odd thing to say after he missed two penalties early in the match, but despite those early struggles Agüero didn’t let it get to him in any visible way. He just kept motoring along like always working t o actually put the ball into the back of the net, and between his effort and Steaua’s shaky defense, it was obvious that he would get there eventually. Agüero didn’t even have to wait for the halftime whistle to sound, hammering the ball home in the 41st minute with a spectacular effort, then pushing for a second goal, which he got late in the match -- then making it a hat trick for good measure. We’ve seen early-match struggles send Agüero into a spiral that it could take him a couple games to pull out of before, so to see him just shake it off in a matter of moments like that is an encouraging sign for City fans.

Make no mistake, this win and the scoreline were impressive, especially coming far away from home in Romania. But it also should do nothing to reduce the concerns of City fans after they struggled to a somewhat fortunate win over Sunderland at the weekend, because a lot of the same red flags were present. The defensive midfield and center backs aren’t communicating well, Willy Caballero doesn’t look comfortable in goal, and the attack still doesn’t look consistently comfortable playing Pep Guardiola’s style, despite the moments of brilliance.

All of that led to some really concerning moments when City would turn the ball over too easily and Steaua’s attackers would have too easy a time to get forward and threaten Manchester’s defense. If they’d been facing a side capable of executing better than Steaua were, this match would have ended very, very differently. There’s still a lot of changes being made and adjustments to make before Guardiola and City are at their best, and in the meantime there are going to be a lot more shaky moments to deal with.