Manchester City were back to their best with a commanding 3-1 victory over Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine on Wednesday night.
Manuel Pellegrini's side, who had lost three matches in a row, put themselves in with a brilliant chance of progressing past the Champions League Round of 16 for the very first time by scoring three times away from home.
City dominated the first half and went into the break 2-0 up thanks to goals from Sergio Aguero and David Silva.
The opener came on 15 minutes when Silva sent a corner into the mixer which Yaya Toure did well to nod down for Aguero who took one touch before firing a lovely volley beyond Oleksandr Shovkovskiy.
It was the Argentine's 16th goal in his past 17 Champions League starts.
The visitors doubled their advantage five minutes before the break when Gael Clichy played a lofted ball into the path of Aguero who controlled perfectly on the left side of the area, before back heeling for an onrushing Raheem Sterling who picked out Silva at the back post, allowing the Spaniard to simply side foot home.
Dynamo came out with a much different mindset in the second half following Sergei Rebrov's likely dressing down and managed to pull one back just before the hour-mark.
Nicolas Otamendi's poor headed clearance was pounced upon by Vitaliy Buyalskyi whose first-time effort deflected off the Argentine centre-half and fizzed in past a wrong-footed Joe Hart.
The home side created a bit of a buzz with some free-flowing attacking play for a stage with Buyalskyi forcing a quality save from Hart but City were able to get back on the ball to control the contest before coming up with a late third goal to stamp their authority on the clash.
A lovely passing move from the 2014 Premier League champions resulted in Toure playing a one-two with Fernandinho before supplying a delightful left-footed curling effort into the top right corner to send City back to England with confidence ahead of the return bout at the Etihad Stadium on March 15.
2015/16 UEFA Champions League - Round of 16 first leg
Dynamo Kiev (UKR): 1 (Vitaliy Buyalskyi 58')
Manchester City (ENG): 3 (Sergio Aguero 15', David Silva 40', Yaya Toure 90')
Olympic Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine - 53,691
