City team-mates close ranks around Hart

MANCHESTER CITY’S senior players closed ranks round Joe Hart following his comments about the 3-2 defeat at Real Madrid on Tuesday night. Neither Vincent Kompany nor Gareth Barry followed Roberto Mancini in criticising the goalkeeper for his statement that allowing a 2-1 lead slip with five minutes to go “was not on”.

Although Mancini agreed with Hart’s sentiment, the manager was angry at the goalkeeper for going public, saying: “If anyone should criticise the team it should be me, not Joe Hart. I am the judge, not Joe Hart.”

But Kompany, who appeared to move out of the way as Hart failed to save Cristiano Ronaldo’s late winner, said: “It wasn’t Joe’s fault. It floated past everyone, the way it went down. It’s one of those things. There’s not many players in the world who can do that but unfortunately for us he is one of them.”

Kompany offered his explanation of Ronaldo’s 90th-minute winner. “It just floated. Joe initially thought I might have been able to get it. But there was no chance. It was [to] the side of me and it just floated. I think he’s one of the only players that can do that. He’s got that skill.

“There’s nothing much you can do once he has the chance to take that shot, all you can do is try and close down the space to do that. We hoped that moment would not have come. He was too quick, the way it floated. By the time you got in position it’s already gone.”

Before Ronaldo’s winner Hart had kept City in the game with a series of impressive saves. After Edin Dzeko’s 68th-minute opener, Marcelo’s deflected shot equalised before Aleksandar Kolarov’s free-kick was answered by Karim Benzema.

Asked how Hart was at the end, Barry said: “The same as everyone else: he’s played a great game and made some unbelievable saves and to have a couple of deflections beat him in the end is disappointing.

“His head’s down but he’ll realise when he gets home he’s played a great game as well.”

Yaya Toure played down the significance of the defeat, saying there was no need to panic regarding City’s prospects of qualifying from a group that also includes Borussia Dortmund and Ajax, who were beaten 1-0 by the German champions on Tuesday evening.

“It was a big improvement on last year. Here we were playing against a fantastic team. This is a great club with a great history,” said Toure. “For us, this was a good test – to see what level we are at and to see where we want to go. I think this shows City are continuing to improve and learn in Europe.

“We still have a lot of young players. They will have gained a lot from a night like this. We still have a lot of games to get the points we need. It’s really important this year that we do better than last year and get to the knockout stages and prove we are developing as a European team.

“A couple of months playing in the Champions League every couple of weeks and you will see a different Manchester City. We gave the goals away at the end – but we will make sure that does not happen in future.”

Kompany agreed. “You have to remember Real Madrid will probably take the points off Ajax and Dortmund here too. So there’s no drama. It’s just regrettable because we had a good chance to win the game. You won’t hear me moan or being silly about it.

“But it was only the first game in the Champions League and there are plenty more to come. For us there could only be a bonus point tonight.

“It didn’t happen unfortunately, but we were playing against one of the strongest teams in the world, at their home. We’ll improve this season as well. It’s been a great way for us to measure ourselves, to find out where we are as a club.”

Barry emphasised that as this was potentially City’s toughest game of the group they have nothing to fear. “There’s so many positives we can take but at the same time we’ve got to look at the picture. We’ve lost the first game, it’s going to be tough from now but we’ve confidence in our squad. We’re going to need some big performances, and we believe we can do that,” he said.