I Need Aguero, I’m Holding Out For Aguero Til The End Of The Night
This was all set up in favor of Manchester City going into the Champions League game against Villarreal at the Etihad Stadium, Tuesday night. City had come off a dominant win against Aston Villa at the weekend while Villarreal had only managed a scoreless draw away to Getafe. City had at least registered a single point on the board in Champions League play, Villarreal had played, and lost two.
This all said it looked as if City were going to be frustrated yet again in the Champions League as City went a goal down early on to a Ruben Cani strike in the 4th minute of play. Although that left 86 minutes to rectify the situation it was not an ideal start for the club who have been tipped as the Champions League surprise package. After losing to Munich in Germany and only getting a draw against Napoli it was important City won this. A loss would almost certainly have all but ended the campaign and a draw wouldn’t have been much better either.
Shots from DeJong and Nasri went harmlessly off target and Dzeko gave the Assistant Referee’s arm a workout with numerous offsides decisions. Then five minutes from the half City Boss, Roberto Mancini decided to bring off Adam Johnson and replace him with Gareth Barry. This obviously didn’t go down well with the crowd nor the ex-Middlesbro man. However in Mancini we trust and within two minutes City were level again, with an inswinging corner from the boot of Kolarov being converted into his own net by Carlos Marchena.
The second half started and you would have thought that City would go for the jugular but again this never happened. In fact it looked like Villarreal would be the team to score next with shots from Rossi testing Hart and a long range effort from Cani going over the crossbar.
Just after the hour mark City went more attacking with DeJong coming off for an Argentine that obviously dealt with the confusing way Mancini tells players ‘you’re on’. Aguero added to City’s attack but he and his colleagues couldn’t provide that final punch to put City in the lead. Milner would then come on for Nasri with ten minutes left and five minutes later Edin Dzeko saw his header go wide from inside the penalty box.
As the time ran out and City went into stoppage time Villarreal played timewasters to the annoyance of Mancini and the City faithful. Zabaletta seemed to then have missed the final best chance by heading a shot straight at Lopez.
Then City broke from a Hart goalkick and City, encouraged on by the 42,000 City fans, journeyed down the pitch towards the Villarreal goal. When the Villarreal defenders thought they had every City player covered there was a nice reverse ball to Zabaletta who drilled the ball across the goalface. Silva cheekily attempted a backheel but it came through the Aguero who bulged the net to secure City’s first Champions League win.
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