al
Madrid: Hosts crash out despite
Aguero leveller
Roberto Mancini's team are
eliminated from the Champions
League after drawing their
third consecutive home
encounter in the group stages
MORE ON : Manchester City, Real
Madrid CF, Manchester City vs Real
Madrid CF
3
Comments
0
Awesome
0
Dislike
By Wayne Veysey at Etihad
Stadium
Manchester City staged another
late recovery but were eliminated
from the Champions League
following a 1-1 draw against 10-
man Real Madrid.
A late minute Sergio Aguero
penalty gave the scoreline some
respectability for Roberto
Mancini's team but a sober
evening showed how far they
have to go to compete on the
highest club stage with a team of
Real's calibre.
DON'T MISS
TEAM NEWS: Dzeko starts vs
Real Madrid
Ramos shocked by Man City's
CL failings
Jose Mourinho's side took an
early grip of the match through a
10thminute Karim Benzema
volley that they never looked like
relinquishing until City threw
caution to the wind late on.
Alvaro Arbeloa was sent off after
conceding a soft penalty when
he clipped Aguero with 17
minutes left and the Argentine
stepped up to level the scores.
But it was not enough to stop
City exiting the competition with
one match to play, as Real joined
group leaders Borussia
Dortmund in the knockout
stages.
Mancini, whose name was sung
in bursts during the second half
by City fans perhaps wary of a
Chelsea-style boardroom sniper
attack, was once again a
frustrated figure as his miserable
Champions League record
continued.
He is now facing a battle to even
compete in the post-Christmas
Europa League, with even victory
in Dortmund in a fortnight not a
guarantee that City will finish
third in the group.
On a chilly night that should have
been the most glamorous
European occasion in the club's
history, there was instead a
distinctly low key feel as the blue
moon remained in the shadow
of the continent's elite.
City's players, knowing
qualification for the group stages
was all but impossible, appeared
to go through the motions early
on as they struggled to adapt to
Mancini's 3-4-1-2 formation,
which saw Pablo Zabaleta joining
Vincent Kompany and Matija
Nastasic in central defence.
Real, wearing racing green,
accelerated through the gears in
the opening 20 minutes as they
carved open City's leaky defence
at will.
Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira and
Luka Modric dominated the
midfield to allow Ronaldo and
Angel Di Maria to frighten the
lives out of a defence which has
been so shaky this season.
Ronaldo was in particularly
irrepressible form, dancing his
way down the left-wing