SOCCER/Manchester C 1 Dynamo Kiev 0 (Agg 1-2):MANCHESTER CITY'S participation in Europe is over for another year, smouldering out on an evening that will be remembered as the nadir of Mario Balotelli's first season in English football.
Roberto Mancini’s players put in a valiant effort, winning this second leg via Aleksander Kolarov’s low drive, but Balotelli’s red card after 36 minutes left them short in attack and, for all their endeavour, the damage inflicted in the Valeriy Lobanovskiy stadium last week proved to be too great.
Balotelli was “stupid”, to use Mancini’s description, delivering a crude, studs-up kick into the chest of Goran Popov, reminiscent of Nigel de Jong’s infamous challenge on Xabi Alonso in the World Cup final. Whether City would have worn down their opponents had Balotelli stayed on the pitch we will never know.
But Mancini certainly appeared to think so and the manager was entitled to feel badly let down.
Mancini had initially been reluctant to criticise a player he has tried to protect at times since signing him from Internazionale last summer but, asked whether he was angry, his response was clear.
“What do you think?” he replied. “If Mario thinks, he could be a fantastic player. But this is his problem. When he does stupid things like tonight it’s difficult for him, for me and for the team.”
In the circumstances the 10 men acquitted themselves well. Kolarov’s goal came three minutes after the red card, arrowing his shot through a congested penalty area after David Silva had touched a free-kick into his path, and what followed was a courageous and spirited attempt to break through the Ukrainian defence again.
Dynamo, despite the extra man, seldom played with any ambition. They had also resorted to diving, time-wasting and just about every other trick in the book long before the end. But the extra man told.
City were the superior team for long spells but there were few clear-cut chances in the second half and the late onslaught that might have been anticipated never really materialised. By the final whistle they looked a tired side, running out of ideas and, for that, Balotelli will have to accept a significant proportion of the blame.
There is nothing new about this 20-year-old blurring the boundaries of what is acceptable and what is not, but, until now, the good has outweighed the bad, even if there have been moments when it has been a close call.
This, though, was a footballer guilty of reckless naivety. Balotelli had suffered a couple of heavy tackles himself and the tell-tale signs were there of a player allowing emotion to get the better of him, running towards the Turkish referee, Cuneyt Cakir, at one point and gesturing wildly.
His time on the pitch also incorporated missing the kind of chance he would usually score blindfolded.
Even so, little defence could be applied to the way, jumping for an aerial challenge, he jabbed out his left leg and planted his studs into Popov’s chest before dragging them all the way down to his opponent’s thigh.
It was a night of bizarre refereeing from Cakir, with eight players booked. “Every time, dive; every time, whistle, whistle,” Mancini said.
But this was a clear sending-off.
There were unconfirmed reports after the match of Balotelli stopping his car to remonstrate with Kiev fans.
MAN CITY: Hart, Kolarov (Milner 88), Lescott, Kompany, Richards, Barry (Adam Johnson 71), Toure Yaya, De Jong, Balotelli, Tevez, Silva (Dzeko 76). Subs not used: Taylor, Wright-Phillips, Vieira, Boyata. Booked: Tevez, Kompany, Silva, De Jong, Toure Yaya.
DYNAMO KIEV: Shovkovskiy, Danilo Silva, Leandro Almeida, Yussuf, Popov, Gusev, Eremenko, Vukojevic, Yarmolenko (Betao 90), Ninkovic (Zozulya 45), Shevchenko (Garmash 62). Subs not used: Koval, Rybalka, Nesmachniy, Guilherme. Booked: Yussuf, Ninkovic, Leandro Almeida.
Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey).
