Europa League: City still favourites despite defeat

Ok it wasn't exactly a great performance, certainly nothing like we've become accustomed to this season. But lets face it, we've been spoiled rotten so far with very few disappointments compared to our Jekyll and Hyde existence in seasons past.

Sporting hadn't lost at home in Europe for the last 9 games. They'd won all 5 of their games there this season, scoring 9 and conceding just 2, so it was never going to be a walkover.

The final score was disappointing, but there are positives that can be taken with the negatives. Not least that Mario Balotelli seems to be quickly growing into the player many of us saw he could become when he signed last season.

Although he was only on for 20 minutes or so, he changed the entire game for City and very nearly pulled back a goal for a draw were it not for the crossbar. Sporting simply couldn't handle him and were drawn into fouling him several times around the area, conceding a number of bookings in the process.

Balotelli is quickly maturing and starting to repay the faith and time that Mancini has invested in the young Italian. Those who ever doubted his natural talent are being proved wrong one by one. For me, there was one thing during his stint on the pitch that summed up the brilliant unpredictability of Balotelli, his cross into Silva was something that would be spoke about for weeks had it been done by Ronaldo or Messi.

Bursting through the left side of the 18 yard box, does he take the easy and natural option of crossing it with his left foot? No, not our Mario. It was a short rabona cross as good as you'll ever see which was sadly prodded wide by Silva. Great tekkers.

Several key players were having off  days though. Silva, Aguero, Barry, De Jong, Dzeko, and Milner were all below their usual standards overall, some more than others. But everyone is allowed an off day every now and then.

There were other key players missing from the side too. Both Richards and Zabaleta were missing due to injury which meant Clichy had to fill in at right-back and was clearly not as effective as he is on the left. Yaya Toure was suspended and his forceful movement through the centre was also a miss.

Then to compound problems, Kompany pulled up with a calf strain early in the first half and is likely to be out for up to 2 weeks. Lescott also played through a slight groin injury towards the end of the game which may keep him out of the game against Swansea.

What was a really telling though, is that this was by far the biggest game of the season for Sporting as they played out of their skins. The celebrations of players and fans when they scored and at the final whistle were comparable to if they had actually won the Europa League.

Despite this, I don't think Sporting showed anything to say that they are in the driving seat to walk away from the Etihad Stadium with a passage into the next round. That's not to say City will walk the 2nd leg as I expect Sporting to put in another resilient performance and try and hit City on the break.

FC Porto v Manchester City: post match thoughts.

Although the media reaction to the game has been fairly muted and instead has focused on other incidents during the match, City's victory over Porto should not be under-appreciated by the fans.

Make no mistake about it, Porto are no mugs and they rarely lose at home in any competition. In fact before facing City, they had only ever lost once on home soil to English opposition. Let's not forget that Porto are also the current holders of the Europa League and won the Champions League in 2004.

City fans may have been left rolling their eyes after realising that the referee was the same one that sent Balotelli off in their last Europa League game and let Dynamo Kiev's time wasting and play acting go largely unpunished. But hey, we're getting used to this being screwed over malarkey, aren't we? Thankfully it has rarely affected the final result in the league.

The first half saw City rather frustrated as they made several good chances which were seen saved by the Porto keeper, Helton (or Elton) if you were watching on ITV1. Balotelli, Richards and Nasri all had shots that were destined for the back of the net, saved by the Brazilian.

Despite City creating the better chances, it was Porto who took the lead within half an hour when Hulk had space for a cross on the left and whipped the ball in with a low drive. Verela got to it first after losing Clichy and prodded the ball home from 6 yards. Hart did make contact with it but not enough to turn it away from goal.

Although City were 1-0 down at the break, due to the chances that had already been created, you were still positive that City could get themselves back into this game. On 55 minutes, City did exactly that with a slice of luck that has been sorely missing of late.

Yaya, stood just inside the Porto half, lofted the ball into the box which was put into the net by Pereira (perhaps the most naturally miserable looking person on the planet), due to some fine pressuring by Balotelli.

Sergio Aguero came off the bench and replaced Balotelli on 77 minutes and it was him who sealed the victory for City 7 minutes later, Yaya Toure once again the provider. The big Ivorian bursting into the box after being put through by Nasri, unselfishly knocking the ball square to Aguero who could not miss.

It was a performance and comeback to be proud of, City played quite well throughout and limited Porto to very few decent chances despite the number of shots they actually had. Even the £80m forward, Hulk, looked more like the incredible sulk. He came up against Richards, Kompany and Lescott during the 90 minutes and barring his first-touch cross in the first half, he made very little impact on the game. The impact on the ground was considerably greater as he spent a lot of time hitting it after falling over all too easily.

Lescott once again proved his credentials and hardly put a foot wrong, he certainly got my vote for man of the match. After Mancini's stern words in the last couple of weeks, Balotelli also put in a very professional performance and Mancini will be hoping he stays that way until the end of the season. In fact although it couldn't be said in the first half, at the end of the 90 minutes, I'm not sure anyone had a particularly bad game overall.

Unfortunately it took a rather unsavoury incident for City to get a real headline from this game. The Club have put an official complaint in after both Mario Balotelli and Yaya Toure reported racist chanting from a section of Porto fans.

Interviewed after the game, Yaya said he 'heard something' but didn't state what it was but Porto officials instantly denied such claims before actually looking into them.

The official Porto stance on it is that “nothing abnormal” had taken place and that “No one noticed anything strange, not even the Uefa delegates that worked closely with Porto during the match.”

Rui Cerqueira (Porto's spokesmen) then went on to embarrassingly describe what he felt was a misunderstanding. He said that Porto fans were actually chanting "Hulk, Hulk, Hulk" and City fans were chanting "Kun, Kun, Kun."

I think we all knew this was total rubbish. City fans are well known for chanting "Kun, Kun, Kun" aren't we? Especially when Mario is on the ball and Aguero is on the bench. Last I heard, we chant "Sergio, Sergio" but that may just be my dodgy hearing.

Perhaps unfortunately for Rui and Porto, video footage of at least one incident that has been posted on Youtube showing a section of Porto fans making monkey sounds when Balotelli failed to score in the first half. There were several incidents reported at the end of 90 minutes.

There can be no excusing this kind of behaviour. City were not saying all Porto fans are racist, but it is clear that a section of them clearly are and picked out Balotelli for treatment. If UEFA fail to act on this, especially after video evidence has come to light, then they are sending the wrong message to Clubs and fans throughout Europe.

City are now in a very strong position going into the 2nd leg at the Etihad Stadium, a 2-1 lead with both goals coming away from home. There is still a job to do, but City are strong favourites to head into the round of 16.



Twitter: @MikeWalshMCFC or @mcfcDSLeftFoot
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