Manchester City roll aside Roma but last 16 could expose soft centre
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Version 0 of 1. Manchester City’s quest to be a dominant European force lives on into the last 16 of the Champions League. For the third time in four seasons the Sheikh Mansour project appeared to be falling apart before the knockout stage could be reached but then Samir Nasri stepped up with a 60th-minute rocket that left Morgan De Sanctis little chance. This was a rousing win at a hostile venue but until Pablo Zabaleta scored their second goal, City’s had been a disjointed display against Serie A’s second-placed side, one who made City look like a band of naive millionaire footballers led by a manager, Manuel Pellegrini, whose tactical nous at this level is questionable. The manager could quite rightly point to last season’s campaign, when he guided City to the last 16 for the first time. Yet the vulnerabilities that were exposed when being eliminated by Barcelona have still not been addressed despite this result, and passage into the knockout round that came courtesy of CSKA Moscow’s loss to Bayern Munich. The main charge is that the front and back can be disparate parts, as if attack and defence have been grafted together awkwardly via a midfield who impress going forward but are shaky when asked to protect. This contest was studded with the sight of Rudi García’s team running at the visitors. Gervinho, Maicon and José Holebas all made hay while the Stadio Olimpico lights shone. They knifed through Pellegrini’s side with ease. The atmosphere was vibrant and febrile and featured burning hand-beacons and loud firecrackers before kick-off which left the smell of gunpowder drifting across the stadium. City had hoped they could start with a bang. Instead it was Roma who began by exposing the weaknesses of Pellegrini’s team. A Gervinho skip behind the defence won a corner. Moments later, Holebas shredded the defence to have clear sight of Joe Hart’s goal. Francesco Totti had undone City in the earlier match at the Etihad Stadium when galloping into space to score the equaliser. Here the 38-year-old was again bewitching the men in blue, the dummy he gave to Martín Demichelis near halfway making a mug of the defender and allowing Roma to pour forward once more. When roving forward City are difficult to halt. Twice Roma were turned with the most dangerous of these moves. A Gaël Clichy cross found Edin Dzeko but he struggled to direct his header on target. Beforehand Dzeko said he wanted to be the hero in the enforced absence of Sergio Agüero. The wish to fill the vacuum left by City’s main striker, who has scored 19 goals this season, was admirable. But what Pellegrini required was for the whole XI to turn in a star performance, while the manager needed to show subtleties beyond the mantra of “attack, attack and still more attack” if this ploy did not work. The 3-2 win over Bayern Munich a fortnight ago had been the Agüero show. Now City needed to prove they were no one-man band on an evening when the stakes could hardly have been higher for the club. In the week the latest £200m investment went live with Monday’s opening of the City academy, the very least required was a victory. The challenge for them had been made harder when David Silva, Stevan Jovetic and Vincent Kompany were unable to start because of injury, with the latter not able even to make the bench. This made the suspension being served by Yaya Touré for being sent off at CSKA appear even costlier. The side the manager named still looked formidable and really should have been up to beating Roma at the venue where they had been handed a 7-1 hiding by Bayern. As the game wore on the longstanding deficiencies continued to surface as City’s defence was rocked. Hart made a fine save from Kostas Manolas to turn his header on to a post and then the goalkeeper missed a regulation ball from a corner and Demichelis was forced to clear from near the goalline. If City are be serious contenders in the competition’s latter stages Pellegrini has to start shutting up shop and picking his moments to be gung-ho. |