Man City survived a late scare to draw 1-1 in their Europa League glamour game with Juventus.
Ambitious Blues put in creditable performance against Italian giants
Manchester City survived a late scare to draw 1-1 with Juventus in a hard-fought Europa League clash at Eastlands.
Vincenzo Iaquinta gave Juve a 10th-minute lead in the glamour game of City's Group A campaign, as the hosts struggled to contain the Italian giants.
But Roberto Mancini's men gradually found their feet and recalled England winger Adam Johnson gave the ambitious Blues a deserved equaliser in the 37th minute.
A trademark Alessandro Del Piero free-kick hit the underside of the crossbar late on as the two sides battled for ascendency in the second half.
They were unable to find a winner, though, meaning City remain two points clear of Juve at the top of the group.
Lech Poznan went level with the Blues on four points after following up their 3-3 draw at Juve with a 2-0 win at home to Red Bull Salzburg, and City next have back-to-back games against the Polish outfit.
Prestige
Although Juve are not at their best at the moment, the aura of the 'Old Lady' of Turin lingers on. There is an elite group of European clubs who carry prestige no matter what their current fortunes and it is a group that City's big-spending owners want to break into.
Mancini again rotated his expensively-assembled squad with the recalled Emmanuel Adebayor putting in a poor performance up front while Jerome Boateng was handed his first City start at right-back after recovering from injury.
The Germany international sent an early long-range effort wide but then it was all Juve leading up to the visitors' opener.
Iaquinta cut inside from the left and unleashed a blistering 30-yard strike that took a slight deflection off Kolo Toure before dipping under the dive of City keeper Joe Hart.
Serbia winger Milos Krasic was causing City problems down the right before being rightly booked for diving over Pablo Zabaleta's leg inside the Blues' box.
The hosts were struggling to exert any sustained pressure, with captain Carlos Tevez shifted to the left wing to allow Adebayor a central role.
But City forced Claudio Marchisio to clear off his own line and, just after the half-hour mark, Gareth Barry's glancing header came back off the far post from Tevez's cross and Alex Manninger denied Johnson from the rebound.
Equaliser
Although Juve had plenty of men behind the ball, City managed to level from their next attack as Yaya Toure burst forward in midfield before spotting Johnson's run and splitting the Italian backline with a superb slide-rule pass.
Johnson took one touch to leave Manninger flat-footed and then poked the ball into an open goal for just his second City goal.
Although City had the better of possession and territory in the second half, they failed to forge any clear-cut opening and Del Piero sent a 30-yard free-kick narrowly wide.
Half-chances came and went for Adebayor, Patrick Vieira and Barry, before Adebayor was hauled off for David Silva.
But the Spanish playmaker was also unable to unlock the Juve defence and Del Piero gave City a late scare as his 30-yard free-kick bounced down off the bar and the goal-line assistant rightly deemed the ball had not fully crossed the line.
| Manchester City |
Team Statistics |
Juventus |
| 1 |
Goals |
1 |
| 1 |
1st Half Goals |
1 |
| 4 |
Shots on Target |
5 |
| 9 |
Shots off Target |
4 |
| 3 |
Blocked Shots |
0 |
| 5 |
Corners |
2 |
| 13 |
Fouls |
6 |
| 2 |
Offsides |
0 |
| 1 |
Yellow Cards |
2 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 87% |
Passing Success |
78% |
| 27 |
Tackles |
26 |
| 82% |
Tackles Success |
88% |
| 66% |
Possession |
34% |
| 56% |
Territorial Advantage |
44% |
|
