City’s 4th defeat in 29 games leaves the squad with a European mountain to climb in town next week. Post match reaction to a disappointing night in the cold…
Roberto Mancini:
‘If we want to get into the quarter-finals, we have to play better than we did and defend better. I think we played well and controlled most of the game, but made two mistakes, two big mistakes, and paid the price….Kyiv are a good side, but I felt we deserved a goal at least on the night. We didn’t pay enough attention at vital times and they took advantage so we have made life difficult for ourselves. You can’t concede goals like that if you want to be successful in the Europa League. Kyiv have the edge now and will be favourites to go through, but this match is far from over.’
FC Dynamo Kiev.ua:
‘Andriy Shevchenko, who was at his best this night, put his side in front midway through the first half, turning in Andriy Yarmolenko’s cross. After opening the scoring, Kyiv remained dominating and kept going and going. The second half saw Roberto Mancini’s side trying to force a way through the Dynamo defense. The visitors increased their pressure, mostly through substitute Tévez, who did give the team some fresh energy. But it was the hosts who showed greater composure in front of goal as they doubled their lead 13 minutes from the end. A mistake by Man City defender presented Oleh Husyev with a chance to give Dynamo a valuable two-goal cushion and become a hero of the second half. Indeed Oleh could have had another in stoppage time but his effort was blocked by goalkeeper. Now Dynamo must defend their advantage in Manchester. Looking forward for the return leg.’
The VMCers:
fifth column blue:
‘Well, a strong team couldn’t get past this lot. We played well in patches of the game and definitely deserved something. We certainly didn’t look tired on the pitch, but as the game wore on you just got the impression that the Kiev players had the ref utterly fooled into thinking they were being murdered…I hate having to blame the refs for things, and I’m always suspicious of those who do – but the evidence of tonight was that he gave a lot of decisions in their favour, and he bought a lot of play-acting.’
Buzz Lightyear:
‘No way City were two goals worse than this team. The referee was sometimes beyond belief with the decisions. Tevez was booked for complaining that the corner he had won was given as a goal kick and when you have the pitch and the referee against you, a 2-0 loss was not that bad…Although Kiev is a decent team, it is not beyond City to win this at home comfortably.’
john kelv:
‘We have it all to do next week now. Must get an early goal to have any chance. Voted for Barry as Man of The Match, but no player stood out. Think our manager was out foxed, so hope we can at least have a real go at home.’
Blue Billy:
‘The only real positive tonight in my opinion is that Lescott looked solid again. With all this Kolo kerfuffle, it’s important that Vinnie and Joleon seem to have developed a decent partnership. However, our four best players today were all defenders, and we lost 2-0…’
Rojo 2010:
‘City just ain’t playing that well really, are they? They don’t bounce off each other (not literally), they lack ideas and they are certainly lacking the finishing touch lately… I’m find myself frowning uncontrollably when I watch them play… There goes my dream of playing a major final in Dubh Linn. Weep.’
eighthsin:
‘Lescott, Kompany, Richards, Zabaleta and Barry all did okay. Everyone else played way below par.’
Stu MCFC:
‘To be honest we haven’t generally played that well this season. Many of our wins have been grinds. There have been the occasional great performances like Chelsea at home, West Ham and Fulham, but so many times we seem to lack the teamwork and tempo these that we should with these players. The problem is, we don’t seem to be progressing in that department – we played better against Fulham in the 4-1 away win ages ago than we did against Wigan at the weekend…The missing link may be a creative midfielder and a bit more pace (Johnson’s return should help). Fatigue could be part of the problem but something is just off in how the team is. Like when we need a goal, we seem unable to press and press urgently like top teams do, we were passing it sideways and backwards in the last 5 today again.’
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