Man City discover 'silver lining' of Treble failure as national media react to title race boost

Manchester City continued their redemption tour after the Champions League exit to Real Madrid with a 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest.

The Blues did not have things all their own way at the City Ground but they opened the scoring on 32 minutes as Josko Gvardiol diverted a near post corner into the back of the net. Chris Wood will have felt he should have done better not to equalise before the end of the half and unsurprisingly, this would come back to bite him.

Erling Haaland rounded off the scoring 20 minutes from time with a neat finish one-on-one with Matz Sels. The result means City are just a point behind Arsenal having played a game less and they are in the driving seat to retain their title.

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MEN Sport has taken a look at how the national media saw the game unfold in relation to the title race.

City reporter Sam Lee wrote about City finding their 'silver lining' this season after the disappointment of the Champions League. He explained: "With Bernardo Silva looking well below his best and De Bruyne seemingly ready to drop by the final whistle, City can be pretty happy that they are not in Champions League action this week.

"‘Happy’ is not exactly the right word, as Guardiola and his players would give anything to be travelling to Munich looking to retain the Champions League, still in pursuit of a treble. Guardiola has been complaining about City’s scheduling recently and the tight turnaround between matches, but even he says he would rather still be in the Champions League than out of it.

"But the fact they are indeed out of it can only help them in their quest to win the title."

Tom Victor chose to focus on Haaland's return