City’s first ever away victory in Europe’s premier club competition could hardly have been more comfortable thanks to a clinical pair of Yaya Toure strikes sandwiching a Mario Balotelli penalty. Injuries and Aguero’s last minute winner in the previous round had clearly taken their toll on Villarreal.
Roberto Mancini sprung a surprise in selecting Stefan Savic ahead of Joleon Lescott. Maybe the manager didn’t want to risk Joleon ahead of the game against QPR when Kompany is suspended. With Villarreal impotent in attack Savic was able to demonstrate his excellent composure on the ball – you have to remind yourself he’s still only 20.
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City clocked up their first win in the Champions League thanks to an injury time strike from Sergio Aguero. Roberto Mancini called it “lucky” and the overall performance left a lot to be desired, but our Champions League campaign is finally up and running.
As expected Mancini made several changes from the side that trounced Aston Villa. Dzeko and Nasri were both restored to the attack, while Zabaleta and Kolarov came in at full-back.
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Hart – Made a poor start palming out Rossi’s shot into the path of Cani for the opener. Otherwise dealt well with Villarreal’s efforts. 6
Zabaleta – So nearly the hero with a header in injury time. Showed his spirit by going on to provide the cross for Aguero’s winner. 7
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City take on Villarreal in real need of a victory to kickstart their Champions League campaign. The good news is that the Spaniards look the weakest team in the group, and have players missing through injury.
They don’t appear to be of the same calibre as Napoli and City, with the likes of Aguero and Silva back in the side, should claim the win. Of course European games are harder to predict than domestic fixtures. City’s travails in the Europa League are testimony to that.
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