UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: GROUP A: Bayern Munich 2 Manchester City 0:ROBERTO MANCINI revealed that Carlos Tevez had refused to go on as a substitute for Manchester City last night as his team's defeat was overshadowed by the Argentinian's behaviour and the manager's row with Edin Dzeko. Mancini had wanted to bring on Tevez in the second half. "He refused to go in," the manager reported.
“For me it’s a bad situation because it’s impossible if a player refuses to go in and will not help the team. It’s impossible.” He added: “I can’t accept that one player refused to go in.”
Mancini had clashed with Dzeko after replacing him. “He was disappointed but the manager can do what he thinks. I thought it was important like this.”
For City, this was the moment when they learned what a tough, uncompromising competition the Champions League can be and, in the process, reminded us that for all the money, the ambition and forward momentum, they are still only at the early stages of their development. With only two games played, the damage is still reparable but their chances of progressing from Group A are already beginning to look slightly flimsy and there was a worryingly dishevelled look about Mancini’s team.
Mancini looked furious at times during a performance in which City paid a heavy price for 10 wild and erratic minutes towards the end of the first half. That period saw Mario Gomez score twice for Bayern, helped by some defending that was generous, to say the least.
The strange thing is that Mancini’s men began the game with the kind of poise that would not normally be expected of a side making only their second appearance in this competition. Until it all started to go so horribly wrong City looked, in short, like a team with the clear sense that they belonged at this level.
Yet Bayern suddenly burst into life just after the half hour. What happened after that exposed City as a team who still have a lot to learn about what it takes to acclimatise to this competition.
Yet it was easy to sympathise with Joe Hart, the City goalkeeper. Both goals stemmed from rebounds after some splendid saves from Hart and it was perhaps typical of City in this period that a Bayern player should be first to the loose ball on every occasion. The first goal was particularly tough on Hart after he had managed to get a hand to Franck Ribery’s 20-yard effort. Hart was up in a flash to keep out Thomas Muller’s rebound with an even better save from point-blank range. He deserved better than the ball dropping to Gomez, who gave him no chance.
City’s defence had started to show worrying signs of vulnerability and, two minutes earlier, Bastian Schweinsteiger had scooped an easy chance from Muller’s cross over. City’s big night was suddenly turning into an ordeal and, for the English supporters high in the vertiginous stands, it was about to become even worse.
Hart, again, was blameless as Toni Kroos swung a free-kick into the penalty area and Daniel van Buyten flashed a header goalwards. The ball was kept out brilliantly at Hart’s near post but Gomez followed up to double the lead. The players in blue scarcely reacted.
City, to give them their due, had seen a lot of the ball but they had spent a lot of time on the edges of the Bayern penalty area without creating too many scoring opportunities. Dzeko will probably reflect he should have made more of an early chance and there were a couple of moments when the Bayern centre-half Jerome Boateng threatened to give away a penalty but little else.
Dzeko’s clumsy challenge had led to the free-kick from which Bayern scored the second and an unhappy night for the Bosnian soured even further when he was substituted 10 minutes into the second half. Dzeko responded angrily, throwing his tracksuit top to the floor and aiming a mouthful of invective at Mancini. Pitch-side reporters also claimed Tevez, a substitute, exchanged hostile words with his manager and appeared unwilling to warm up.
Guardian Service
BAYERN MUNICH: Neuer, Rafinha, Van Buyten, Boateng, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Gustavo, Muller, Kroos (Tymoschuk 82), Ribery (Robben 90), Gomez (Petersen 90). Subs not used: Butt, Usami, Contento, Alaba.
MANCHESTER CITY: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Toure, Clichy, Nasri (Milner 69), Barry (Kolarov 73), Toure Yaya, Silva, Aguero, Dzeko (De Jong 55). Subs not used: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Lescott, Tevez. Booked: Aguero, Clichy, Toure Yaya, Toure.
Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary).
Soccer: pages 2 and 3
