Lech Poznan 3 Manchester City 1:ROBERTO MANCINI cut a defiant figure in the wake of Manchester City's third successive defeat last night though critics of the Italian might say he was in denial.
The result raises serious questions about Mancini’s suitability as the long-term manager of the world’s richest club.
“I’m disappointed because we didn’t deserve to lose the game,” Mancini said. “At the moment everything is against us. We played a good game and we had a lot of chances to win. This is football. We’ve lost the last three games but that is football.
“Sometimes you deserve to score but you don’t. Poznan were very lucky. I’m disappointed to lose the game but I’m happy because the players played a good game. Now it is important that we keep going.”
City had seemed to be coming back into the match when Emmanuel Adebayor equalised early in the second half, but two late goals in the last five minutes saw the unfancied Polish side take the points.
Mancini appreciated that the downward spiral must be arrested. “I think we can change this but at some situations we must pay more attention,” the Italian said. “We can change this only if we stay together.”
At least Carlos Tevez, City’s captain and key striker, returned from Argentina yesterday before training.
“This game was strange, this is football. If we play this game 100 times we would win 90 times maybe. We must continue on because sometimes you lose a game you do not deserve to lose.”
Struggling to retain possession, let alone conjure space, Mancini’s players did little to suggest they were striving to prevent him going the same way as Mark Hughes.
It remains a mystery how City failed to score during a bout of penalty area bagatelle in which Patrick Vieira hit the bar, Adebayor precipitated a clearance off the line and Dedryck Boyata headed into Jasmin Buric’s arms.
It was a costly miss as Poznan were starting to hit their stride with Pesczko, Sergei Krivets, Stilic and Artjoms Rudnevs catching the eye as they exposed Wayne Bridge’s vulnerabilities.
Within moments of Joleon Lescott nodding a Krivets cross towards a fading Vieira, Bakero was celebrating. Vieira’s attempt at a headed clearance fell into the path of Dimitrije Injac, sitting up nicely for the midfielder to smash a stupendous long-range volley into the bottom corner.
With James Milner around no cause is ever entirely lost and his corner prefaced City’s leveller. Adebayor leapt to connect with the delivery and, though Buric repelled the header, his parry dropped to the striker’s feet and he lashed it to the roof of the net.
Shay Given saved smartly from Rudnevs at the near post after Stilic’s pass had split Mancini’s defence before Buric reacted superbly to tip a David Silva strike over the bar.
Reprieved, Poznan rallied with Arboleda “heading” the winner after Boyata’s attempt at nodding clear a speculative ball into the box went straight at the startled scorer’s face. From there it flew past the stranded Given.
He was soon beaten again when Mateusz Mozdzen’s sublime long-range effort offered him no hope after the substitute Vincent Kompany’s loss of possession proved emblematic of Mancini’s night.
GuardianService
LECH POZNAN: Buric, Kikut, Bosacki, Arboleda, Henriquez, Peszko (Wilk 73), Injac (Kielb 52), Djurdjevic, Krivets, Stilic (Mozdzen 62), Rudnevs. Subs not used: Kotorowski, Gancarczyk, Bandrowski, Zapotoka. Booked: Rudnevs, Djurdjevic.
MANCHESTER CITY: Given, Zabaleta, Richards, Boyata, Lescott, Adam Johnson, Vieira, Bridge (Kolarov 70), Wright-Phillips (Silva 46), Milner (Kompany 78), Adebayor. Subs not used: Hart, Barry, Jo, Balotelli. Booked: Richards, Bridge.
Referee: Pieter Vink (Netherlands).
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