Manchester City‘s dream of finishing their season with a trophy starts to evaporate again as one of their target has now officially gone after City got knocked out from the Europa League by Ukrainian top side, Dynamo Kiev.
The Eastlands actually picked up a victory on the second leg match at home as Alexander Kolarov’s free kick blast pass Kiev’s goal in the first period, but one goal wasn’t enough for the home team as they were beaten 2-0 in the first leg.
Eying to take a revenge from the 2-0 defeat in Kiev, Manchester City are playing aggressively right from the start and already create dangerous goal scoring chances in the early minutes from Mario Balotelli, Carlos Tevez and David Silva. Despite the heavy pressure from the home team, Kiev still manage to hold their defense tight that pretty much frustrated the home side a bit as they keep on wasting several good attacking moves.
A little moment of frustration occurred midway in the first half from hot tempered, Mario Balottelli, who got himself sent off after being judged of making a dangerous foul on a Kiev player. From the replay shown, the Italian might feel that he’s a little bit unlucky as the dangerous foul he committed actually doesn’t look as bad as the referee thought, however Balo’s temper once again didn’t do any good for his team as the Eastlands are forced to play with 10 men already in the first perion.
However, playing with 10 men doesn’t actually lowered Manchester City’s aggressiveness as they actually managed to score a goal minutes after Ballotelli’s dismissal after Kolarov’s low free kick just ease pass the Kiev’s goal. The goal lift the home team’s players spirit as despite playing with one man short, they keep on pouring forward looking for the second goal that would level things up on aggregate.
Unfortunately for the home team, the 1-0 scoreline didn’t change even until the end of second half which saw Roberto Mancini brought on much more attacking players such as Adam Johnson and their winter signing, Edin Dzeko, to bolster up their attack. However, replacing David Silva on that second period seemed to decrease the creativity that the Eastlands previously had when the Spanish was still on the field combining with Carlos Tevez and Yaya Toure.
Kiev’s strong defense in the second period added with the one man advantage simply makes thing difficult for the home team, as despite having around five minutes of added time, City still unable to get at least the equalizing goal. The bitter defeat for Roberto Mancini’s side might also marked the rich club’s failure in securing any trophies this season as although still having chances in the Premier League and FA Cup, those local competition aren’t giving any easy ride as well for Man City.
Match Reports:
Manchester City v Dynamo Kiev 1-0
Goals: Alexander Kolarov 39
agg: 1-2 (Kiev goes through the next round after winning 2-0 in the first leg)
photo credit: americanistadechiapas
