Blue heaven: Manchester City fire seven past Schalke to reach UEFA Champions League quarter-finals

Manchester City went goal crazy at the Etihad Stadium as the battered poor Schalke 7-0 on the night to cruise into the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League 10-2 on aggregate.

City put the Bundesliga side to the sword with a superb display of attacking football against a defensively-suspect Schalke side who simply had no answer to the Premier League leaders' pace and trickery in attack.

And as well as a plethora of goals, there was also a host of VAR-related decisions as the game was punctuated by a succession of interventions from the off-field video referee.

City put the tie out of sight in the space of six first-half minutes as a brace from Sergio Aguero and a Leroy Sane strike put the tie beyond the Bundesliga side before the break.

Just after the half-hour mark, Schalke's Dutch international defender Jeffrey Bruma was adjudged to have leaned on Bernardo Silva a little too heavily in the box as referee Clement Turpin pointed to the penalty spot.

And, after a long wait while VAR confirmed the award, Aguero strolled up and chipped the resulting spot-kick nonchalantly past Ralf Fahrmann in the Schalke goal.

© Reuters / Andrew Yates

The Premier League leaders doubled their lead made it two in the 38th minute after Raheem Sterling got in behind the Schalke defense then back-heeled for the Argentinian hitman, who fired through the goalkeeper's legs from an acute angle to notch his second goal of the game.

However, City's goal celebrations were muted due to an interminable wait for the VAR official to clarify whether Sterling was offside in the build-up.

And, three minutes before the break, former Schalke man Leroy Sane broke into the area and fired low past Fahrmann to make it 3-0 on the night and put the game way beyond the Bundesliga side with an aggregate score of 6-2.

© Reuters / Lee Smith

Despite their four-goal advantage at half-time, City kept their foot on the gas, with Sane to the fore.

The German international had one effort disallowed for offside before turning provider for Sterling, whose effort was initially ruled out for offside before VAR intervened and awarded the goal, then for Bernardo Silva, whose finish made it 5-0 on the night.

But City weren't finished yet, and added two more through substitutes Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus.

And Schalke's humiliation was complete when referee Turpin opted not to play any additional time, seemingly to avoid prolonging the German side's punishment any further.

The result sees City cruise through to the quarter-finals of the competition to join the night's other winners Juventus, who had Cristiano Ronaldo's hat-trick to thank for overturning a 2-0 first-leg deficit to book their spot in the last eight with victory over Atletico Madrid.