Manchester City’s European season ended in ignominy when they lost their final Champions League group match 1-0 to a below-strength Borussia Dortmund after a goal from reserve striker Julian Schieber on Tuesday.
Schieber, starting only his second game for the club, slid home Jakub Blaszczykowski’s cross as the English champions again looked out of their depth at European level.
Big-spending City, eliminated before kickoff and out in the group stage for the second season running, finished bottom of Group D with only three points and missed out on the consolation of qualifying for the Europa League.
City are the first Premier League team not to win a game in the Champions League group phase and their points tally was the lowest recorded by an English side, eclipsing Blackburn Rovers’ record of four points from six games in the 1995-1996 season.
Bundesliga champions Dortmund rested Polish trio Robert Lewandowski, Blaszczykowski and Lukasz Piszczek, while Mario Goetze was ruled out along with Neven Subotic, Sebastian Kehl and Sven Bender.
Mario Balotelli, booed incessantly after coming on as a second-half substitute, summed up City’s evening when he was booked in stoppage-time for petulantly throwing the ball to the ground when a decision went against him.
“Was it the same old story? Yes. I don’t know why,” Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart told Sky Sports. “I’d love to answer it. We need to address it, though.”
“The intensity was there, but once they scored it disappeared, which is a shame as we have showed we are a side that can come from behind. Of course we have let ourselves down, because we haven’t even got in the Europa League,” he added.
“There was a hunger to win tonight and if that meant Europa League, then great, but we have got bigger issues than that. We were up against a weakened team and we had to win,” Hart said.
Schieber’s only previous goal for Dortmund had come against lower-league opposition in the German Cup.
Dortmund, who had already secured top spot, completed their impressive campaign with four wins and two draws.
Like City, the Germans were eliminated at the group stage last season, but unlike their opponents have learned from that experience.
“I’m glad the coach gave me the chance, that I repaid his trust in me and that it worked out,” 23-year-old Schieber said after scoring his first Champions League goal.
Dortmund’s philosophy is a complete contrast to City’s, with CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke saying that the club would not exchange its freedom and independence to have an outside investor.
“That is our culture and the culture of our 75,000 members. Being free and independent is German heritage,” he said.
The English champions started with Carlos Tevez partnering Edin Dzeko in attack and Sergio Aguero on the bench.
Dortmund had the best chance of an uninspiring first half when Marco Reus cut inside his marker and scraped the outside of the post with a low left-foot shot.
Mats Hummels just failed to make contact with Marcel Schmelzer’s free-kick, then Joe Hart tipped away an Ivan Perisic volley and saved Kevin Grosskreutz’s shot at the foot of the post as Dortmund made an electrifying start to the second half.
The goal duly arrived when halftime substitute Blaszczykowski burst down the right and sent over an inviting low cross, which Schieber turned in from close range.
“What we have achieved is mad,” Dortmund’s charismatic coach Juergen Klopp said, with his customary three days’ growth of stubble on his chin. “I think we’ve earned ourselves a bit of respect.”
MEDVEDEV AWAITS: The world No. 1 Spainiard said that he is ‘finding the right shots’ as he pushed his record so far this year to 16 victories and no losses Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday extended his unbeaten season and got revenge over Cameron Norrie to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for a fifth straight year. The world No. 1 from Spain emerged from a see-saw battle with 29th-ranked Norrie with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. In the semis tomorrow, he faces Russian Daniil Medvedev, who pushed his own ATP winning streak to eight matches with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over defending champion Jack Draper. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner powered past Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2 to line up a semi-final with fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arthur Fils. Alcaraz, 22, became
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
Brice Turang and Pete Crow-Armstrong’s consecutive RBI singles proved to be the difference in the US’ 5-3 win over Canada in a World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarterfinal on Friday night in Houston. The US faces the Dominican Republic, which crushed South Korea 10-0 in seven innings in its quarter-final, in a semifinal Sunday in Miami for a spot in Tuesday’s championship. The Dominican team has won all five games in this WBC by a combined margin of 51-10. It appeared the US squad was headed toward a cozy victory when it built a 5-0 lead by the sixth inning. A first-inning RBI groundout
RSS