Relief as Manchester rivals get off the mark
Source: Agencies |
October 20, 2011, Thursday
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RELIEF and optimism mixed in with the rain in the Manchester air yesterday after the city's two clubs ignited their Champions League campaigns despite showing little of their domestic spark.
City, which has been scoring for fun in the English Premier League, needed a last-gasp goal from Sergio Aguero to secure a 2-1 win at home to Villarreal on Tuesday while United's nervy 2-0 victory at Romania's Otelul Galati came after two Wayne Rooney penalties.
Neither English side was convincing but the net outcome was the same - a first group victory allowing them to start thinking about qualifying for the knockout stage.
"It would have been very difficult (to qualify) without that goal," Roberto Mancini told a news conference where he surreptitiously glanced at the TV screens showing replays of the stoppage-time winner and his manic touchline celebrations.
With City third in Group A on four points from three games, one behind second-placed Napoli and three behind leader Bayern Munich, Mancini said topping the table was a realistic aim in his club's debut season in the competition.
His counterpart from the red half of Manchester, whose side is second in Group C which features teams which on paper are weaker than those in City's group, was also thinking about the next round with three games still to play.
"We won and that is the important thing," manager Alex Ferguson said on the club's website
"We have to do our job at Old Trafford, hopefully we can beat Galati again which brings us to eight points and I've always said that 10 points gets you through."
City has raced to the top of the Premier League, where it has a two-point lead over its neighbor, by scoring on average more than three goals a game but it has been a different story on the European stage.
It blamed first-night nerves for a 1-1 draw at home to Napoli before slumping to a 0-2 defeat at Bayern where the furore over Carlos Tevez's alleged refusal to play diverted the spotlight away from a poor performance.
Mancini said his club was still getting used to juggling the Champions League with domestic competitions.
"It is not so hard for those clubs who do it every year but this is our first season and that is the hardest one of all," he said. "We need to keep improving and learning."
Continental form
Three-time European champion United cannot hide behind the debutante excuse, having reached the Champions League final in three of the past four years, and for the Red Devils it is not just their continental form that has been a problem.
Having set off at a blistering pace in the Premier League, scoring at an even higher rate than City, the English champion has stalled somewhat in the past month.
Giving away possession cheaply as it did in Romania on Tuesday has been a feature in the Premier League where it has also looked shaky in defense, an area of the team that has been hit by injuries.
Captain Nemanja Vidic's return from a calf injury should go some way to stabilizing that but he is poised to miss at least the next Champions League game after being shown a red card against Galati.
Their European campaigns will be put to one side this weekend when the clubs meet for the highly anticipated Manchester derby at Old Trafford.
"It will be a different game, a different test," Mancini said. "The good thing is we will go there with three wins in succession and in a confident frame of mind."
City, which has been scoring for fun in the English Premier League, needed a last-gasp goal from Sergio Aguero to secure a 2-1 win at home to Villarreal on Tuesday while United's nervy 2-0 victory at Romania's Otelul Galati came after two Wayne Rooney penalties.
Neither English side was convincing but the net outcome was the same - a first group victory allowing them to start thinking about qualifying for the knockout stage.
"It would have been very difficult (to qualify) without that goal," Roberto Mancini told a news conference where he surreptitiously glanced at the TV screens showing replays of the stoppage-time winner and his manic touchline celebrations.
With City third in Group A on four points from three games, one behind second-placed Napoli and three behind leader Bayern Munich, Mancini said topping the table was a realistic aim in his club's debut season in the competition.
His counterpart from the red half of Manchester, whose side is second in Group C which features teams which on paper are weaker than those in City's group, was also thinking about the next round with three games still to play.
"We won and that is the important thing," manager Alex Ferguson said on the club's website
"We have to do our job at Old Trafford, hopefully we can beat Galati again which brings us to eight points and I've always said that 10 points gets you through."
City has raced to the top of the Premier League, where it has a two-point lead over its neighbor, by scoring on average more than three goals a game but it has been a different story on the European stage.
It blamed first-night nerves for a 1-1 draw at home to Napoli before slumping to a 0-2 defeat at Bayern where the furore over Carlos Tevez's alleged refusal to play diverted the spotlight away from a poor performance.
Mancini said his club was still getting used to juggling the Champions League with domestic competitions.
"It is not so hard for those clubs who do it every year but this is our first season and that is the hardest one of all," he said. "We need to keep improving and learning."
Continental form
Three-time European champion United cannot hide behind the debutante excuse, having reached the Champions League final in three of the past four years, and for the Red Devils it is not just their continental form that has been a problem.
Having set off at a blistering pace in the Premier League, scoring at an even higher rate than City, the English champion has stalled somewhat in the past month.
Giving away possession cheaply as it did in Romania on Tuesday has been a feature in the Premier League where it has also looked shaky in defense, an area of the team that has been hit by injuries.
Captain Nemanja Vidic's return from a calf injury should go some way to stabilizing that but he is poised to miss at least the next Champions League game after being shown a red card against Galati.
Their European campaigns will be put to one side this weekend when the clubs meet for the highly anticipated Manchester derby at Old Trafford.
"It will be a different game, a different test," Mancini said. "The good thing is we will go there with three wins in succession and in a confident frame of mind."
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