Real Madrid cast doubt on Roberto Mancini's Euro credentials
Roberto Mancini's ability to deliver in Europe remains in doubt after Real Madrid's late win over Manchester City
Large numbers of Real Madrid fans had already done their disappearing trick when Karim Benzema wheeled on the edge of the Manchester City penalty area in the 87th minute and hit the shot that brought his side level for the second time in the match. A few thousand more were halted in their tracks by that moment of promise and three minutes later they received their reward when the inevitable Cristiano Ronaldo cut in from the left to strike the winner past Joe Hart.
Ronaldo looked happy enough. He had completed a scoreline that offered a perfect reflection of a match that the home side thoroughly deserved to win but from which the visitors extracted enough encouragement to allow them to travel back to England with pride intact, if without a point to show for their efforts.
Roberto Mancini had stepped into the historic Bernabéu on Tuesday night knowing that he was embarking on the next and most testing stage of his career, the one that will determine whether the acquisition of domestic league titles represents the extent of his managerial talent.
No one can take away his status as the man who guided City to the English championship after a wait of 44 years. But if you want your club to win the European Cup, the evidence up to this encounter suggested he might not be your man.His three Serie A titles with Internazionale turned out not to be an adequate platform from which to launch a bid to recapture the continent's club championship. Two consecutive quarter-final eliminations were followed by two in the round of 16, and last year's failure to lead City beyond the group stage added a new low point to a graph of steady decline in his personal performance.
For a handful of minutes last night it seemed as though the goals scored by the substitutes Edin Dzeko and Aleksandar Kolarov in the second half might mark a change in his fortunes. But the replies from Marcelo, Benzema and Ronaldo left that an open question – to be answered in the weeks to come.
As if this encounter had not already seemed an enticing prospect, the two managers chose to spice the occasion with selections that appeared to throw caution to the winds, particularly when they both ditched experienced centre-backs in favour of teenaged novices for this first match of the Champions League season.
Mancini replaced the 30-year-old Joleon Lescott, who has looked shaky this season, with Matija Nastasic, a 19-year-old Serb acquired from Fiorentina during the summer and now making his first appearance in a City shirt. José Mourinho's decision to leave out Sergio Ramos, a 26-year-old with 300 appearances, in favour of the Frenchman Raphael Varane, another 19-year-old barely a dozen appearances into his Real Madrid career, suggested that a big man in the dressing room was being cut down to size.
But Mancini had nothing on his team sheet to match the surprise sprung by his opposite number when Mourinho named Michael Essien, acquired on loan from Chelsea, where injuries were thought to have put an end to his useful life, to play in a central position behind the striker, where Luka Modric had been expected to replace Mesut Ozil. Those two playmakers were consigned to a bench worth more than £160m.
Holding Mourinho's team to 0-0 at half-time nevertheless represented a minor triumph, given the possession enjoyed by Real and the several chances that went begging thanks either to Hart's athletic saves or to wayward finishing.
In the first dozen minutes Hart twice flung himself to save brilliantly from a clearly energised Ronaldo, the Portuguese forward prompted on the first occasion by Xabi Alonso's stiletto of a pass and on the second by a sweeping ball from the busy Angel Di María. Sami Khedira shot over the bar from an excellent position and at the end of the half Gonzalo Higuaín should have done better with a volley from Di María's looping diagonal pass.
Before the interval City had created two good chances on the break, both prompted by Yaya Touré's strong running out of midfield. First the Ivorian – given extra licence by the presence of Javi García alongside Gareth Barry at the base of midfield – held off Essien, who had drifted deeper as the match went on, before guiding a ball just a yard too far ahead of Samir Nasri.
Then his burst created a three-on-two advantage as City's forwards closed on the Madrid penalty area, only for David Silva to turn inside on to Touré's pass and delay his shot sufficiently for Alonso to make the block. It was no surprise when his gallop and coolly judged pass enabled Dzeko to break the deadlock.
The second half increased in intensity until, with four goals in a quarter of an hour, it became as frenetic as a cup final. Both teams had big points to prove and, if Mourinho went home the happier manager, then Mancini could at least look back on a performance of character.
As an Italian, he will have hated the way Real were allowed back into the match. But from somewhere deep inside, from some half-buried strand of DNA, the players of the Spanish club dredged up the memory of their glorious heritage and used it to fan the hesitant flame of their season. Sometimes there is no answer to that.
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