City v Juventus - Post Match

Manchester City v Juventus.

Look at that. Read it again. Manchester City. Juventus. I don't know about you, but up until very recently, I had never thought Manchester City would be playing Juventus in competitive football. Yet here we are, on the 30th September 2010, hosting them in UEFA's Europa Cup.

Ok, so it's not the UEFA Champions League. And sure, Juve aren't what they once were. But if the Europa League group stages can possibly throw up a glamour tie, this is as close as it's going to get.

So it was with some excitement that I set off for the City of Manchester Stadium this evening. Unfortunately, I left feeling a little underwhelmed.

If I'm completely honest, I fell into the trap of thinking if Fulham beat Juve 4-1 last season, tonight would not pose too much of a problem for City. A silly way of thinking, but that's what happened.

When Iaquinta hit a long rage shot past Joe Hart in the tenth minute it came as a shock to the system. The game hadn't exactly sparked into life but from nowhere Juve were ahead. Disappointing.

Even more disappointing though was City's response. Did they up the tempo, looking to get back on level terms? Well, there was plenty of effort but little end product. City barely created a chance until Tevez cut into the box on 19 minutes and hit the ball wide. It wasn't gilt edged, but it was a chance. Meanwhile, at the back City had a mad ten minutes or so. When Juventus attacked City lost shape and balls from deep defence were being left by everybody and ending up with the Juventus strikers. If we're to achieve anything this season we need to be switched on for 90 minutes and at least make things difficult for our opponents. At times tonight, we did not make it difficult for Juventus at all.

The next chance came on 33 minutes. A ball into the box was nodded onto the post by Gareth Barry. Sadly, Adebayor could not react fast enough to get the rebound in.

Not to worry, there were now positive signs. We upped our game and on 37 minutes Yaya Toure slipped an exquisite ball through the Juve defence for Adam Johnson. Alex Manninger in the Juve goal came for it, but Johnson's first touch made him look foolish. His second found the net. 1-1. Time to push on and threaten the Italians.

And what of the second half? There is little to say. There was a heart-in-mouth moment when Del Piero's free-kick came down off the bar and bounced onto the line in the closing stages. Dedryck Boyata made a second half appearance and looked just as assured at right-back as he did against Chelsea. Vincent Kompany continued to look excellent at centre-back and fully deserved his man of the match award.
Slightly more disappointing was the performance of Manu Adebayor. Handed a start and the chance to impress, he failed to take it. The less said the better to be honest, but I can't imagine he's done his chances of starting a premier league game soon any good.

All in all, an unsatisfactory point to be honest. It's not a bad point, it just doesn't feel like much right now. Winning your home games is important if you want to progress in this tournament. The October tie against Lech Poznan, who won tonight, is now a very big game.

Ciao,

Richard

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