Villarreal 0-3 Manchester City - Match Report
Manchester City barely had to flex their attacking muscles as they ran out 3-0 winners over Villarreal at Estadio El Madrigal. The injury plagued Spaniards werent a match for Roberto Mancinis men, as a brace from Yaya Toure and a penalty from Mario Balotelli saw the Sky Blues leapfrog Napoli to claim 2nd place in Group A of the Champions league. Englands most talked about team Manchester City were back in action, and it was once again the Yellow Submarine of Villarreal with the unenviable task of keeping David Silva et al quiet at their home ground Estadio El Madrigal. Saying that though, the Sky Blues have yet to replicate their domestic form in Europe and currently sit 3rd in Group A. With just one point between them and second placed Napoli, it was something of a must-win game for Mancinis prosperous lot, so theyd no doubt be throwing everything they had at their unfortunate opponents. What made the game harder than ever for Juan Carlos Garridos yellows though was their current injury crisis. Cani, who scored the last time the two met, was ruled, as was Nilmar and Giuseppe Rossi. The goalscoring responsibilities fell squarely on the young shoulders of Joselu who started as a loan striker. He is 20-years-old and has played 4 minutes for Villarreal so far in his career, not too much pressure then... It was a fairly inexperienced team with 21-year old Wakaso Mubarak also starting in left midfielder and Hernan Perez in the hole whos played just 4 games for the home side. Sergio Aguero, who came off the bench to score a last minute winner in the previous meeting between the two, was once again confined to the rafters. Mario Balotelli was preferred as a lone striker to Edin Dzeko who also warmed the bench. Stefan Savic, who were seeing more and more of and looks very impressive, started in centre back with Vincent Kompany. There was also a start for James Milner on the right wing. There wasnt much football being played in the opening ten minutes, City had the best of it but Villarreal were generally cancelling them out and staging some disjointed moves of their own. It was obvious they were trying to crowd out David Silva but the skilful Spaniard still seemed to be getting plenty of the ball. Joselu was trying to make up for his lack of service by running around a lot but had had no luck as of yet. He would have been through on goal had he controlled Jonathan de Guzmans long ball but he couldnt quite bring it under his spell, a missed chance for the Submarine de Guzmans pass was inch perfect. A first chance for the visitors, Milners cross was too heavy but was picked up by Mario Balotelli who held off Mario Gaspar before laying it off for Samir Nasri who cut inside and hit it low towards goal but it went just wide. The talking point of the first half hour came when Roberto Mancini hit his head on the dugout roof. There was a heated debate as to whether any ice should be brought out but the Italian gallantly turned it down. And Villarreal thought their injury woes were bad... A further talking point came when Man City scored. David Silva ran with it before squaring to Yaya Toure. His dummy run then took Gonzalo Rodriguez out of the action and Toure calmly curled it into the bottom corner of the net. The City players lifted their shirts to reveal messages of support for their manager and his bruised head. I may have made that bit up. 1-0 City nevertheless with Bayern Munich leading against Napoli the Sky Blues were heading for 2nd place as things stood. Silva was causing the home side problems again - he broke down the right, teasing keeper Diego Lopez before cutting it back for any City player to tuck it into the open net. None of them could do so however and the attack broke down. City then got a penalty just before half time. Mario Balotelli was pushed over by Mateo Mussachio just inside the area after hed nutmegged Carlos Marchena. He went down easily, and a sliding challenge from Gonzalo may have interfered with Pedro Proencas decision. The controversial Italian stepped up to take it and couldnt have been cooler as he passed it into the bottom corner of the net. Was it a penalty? One of those ones that is according to the letter of the law but wouldnt be if footballers werent diving pansies who are constantly rolling around on the floor. Either way there was contact so Balotelli was entitled to go down. That was it for the opening 45 minutes and the two sides traipsed in amidst furious whistles from the home fans. Manchester City had come to Spain for the three points and thats exactly what it looked like theyd leave with. HALF TIME Some disconcerting news as it was reported that Mario Balotelli was on the receiving end of some racist chants - unconfirmed as of yet though. You could see the frustration of the home side as the Sky Blues calmly passed the ball about. Challenges that were at first simply attempts to win possession were looking more and more like attempts to kick the City players. Samir Nasri was the next to feel the wrath of the home support as he was the target of a number of missiles - missiles generally being plastic bottles and the like. A nice bunch these Villarreal fans nowhere near as cheerful as the song their team bears the name of. They then pointed laser pens at the referee. As there was only one yellow dot on the Portuguese visage its probably more accurate to say that one of them pointed a single laser pen at the referee, but it was unsporting all the same. Borja Valero then went on a run, beating Pablo Zabaleta before getting a shot away that deflected on its way through to Joe Hart but not in the wicked unpredictable way - it slowed down considerably and was easily scooped up by the keeper. A well received substitution from Roberto Mancini how boring. David Silva seemed to have injured his back and was replaced by Adam Johnson. The cold hearts of the Villarreal faithful were temporarily melted by the Spanish heros leave and he was applauded on all sides they were probably just happy their side wouldnt have to put up with him anymore. Yaya Toure added a third in the 70th minute. Nigel de Jong won possession in his own half before playing Nasri through. The Frenchman then passed to Balotelli who squared to Toure (Villarreals defence were nowhere to be seen during all of this) and he showed quick feet to dribble round Gonzalo and place it in the corner. Joselu was sent flying by Vincent Kompany as they both went up for a header. This was the story of Villarreals night really they were completely dominated and looking rather pathetic in the process. Some Spanish chants broke out that sounded suspiciously like what a load of rubbish. The game fizzled out after that and both sets of fans as well as the neutrals were probably hoping it would hurry up and end. The complete lack of ambition from Villarreal (due, in fairness to their depleted squad) led to a completely one sided affair, the inevitable nature of which had led to a pretty uninteresting game. Man City had done enough though three points in the bag for Roberto Mancini. Referee: Pedro Proenca Villarreal (4-2-3-1): Lopez, Gaspar, Gonzalo, Musacchi, Catala, Borja Valero, Marchena, Perez (Oriol, 84), De Guzman (Angel, 76), Wakaso (Bordas, 77), Joselu Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Hart, Zabaleta, Savic, Kompany, Clichy, De Jong, Y. Toure (Aguero, 74), Milner, Silva (Johnson, 65), Nasri, Balotelli (Kolarov, 82)