City’s European hopes dim

Hopes of repeating last years Derby victory over Manchester United ended quickly as Mark Hughes side lost 2-0 with first half strikes by Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. The loss severely threatens the Citizens hope for a European football as they are not three points behind Fulham with only two weeks remaining in the campaign.

From the start it was clearly evident that Man City was lacking in depth and pace Shaun Wright-Phillips supplies and were easily bottled up. Efforts to go forward were few and far between and Sir Alex’s side were patient, waiting for the time to strike. Eighteen minutes after the start Stephen Ireland challenge of Dimitar Berbatov was “rewarded” by referee Chris Foy’s with a foul call. From thirty-metres of so Cristiano Ronaldo’s effort took the slightest of bounces of Nigel de Jong and into the net to make it 1-0. Of the foul call, most assuredly it was a bit on the generous side but as matches come and go, a certain degree of calls will not go your way. However this does not change the fact that City not only looked completely unable to break through Man Utd but lacking the “drive” to go on the attack. Prior to the break Darren Fletcher and Dimitar Berbatov linked-up with the Bulgarian providing Carlos Tevez the ball, to which he finished perfectly to make it 2-0. After the restart City had a perfect chance to cut the margin in half as Elano’s long pass provided Robinho the ball in-close but he sent his effort into the stands. Following that opportunity City were provided a few scoring crumbs to consider but nothing materialized and the match concluded with a 2-0 loss.

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