Wednesday night was a black one for Manchester as both United and City crashed out of UEFA Champions League play. City won 2–0 at home over a second string Bayern Munich XI, but it was all to no avail as Napoli won by the same score over group whipping boys Villarreal. At the same time in Switzerland, United dramatically went down 2–1 to Basel, which meant the Swiss side joined group winners Benfica in the round of 16.
Comfortable in the knowledge that they would top the group whatever happened on Match Day 6, Bayern manager Jupp Heynckes opted to rest most of his big guns. Franck Ribery, Mario Gomez, Philip Lahm, Thomas Muller, and Manuel Neuer were all missing from the starting line-up with Bastian Schweinsteiger still on the injured list and Arjen Robben laid low with the flu.
Stefan Savic was a surprise inclusion for Manchester City at right back. Micah Richards was still suffering from a slight knock received on the weekend, but Pablo Zabaleta will have been disappointed not to receive a call-up. Mario Balotelli, James Milner, and Adam Johnson all started on the bench.
‘El Magico’
City had a chance to take the lead as early as the seventh minute but Sergio Aguero uncharacteristically made a complete mess of an attempted header, having done the hard work by getting into a perfect position to receive Samir Nasri’s cross from the left.
Five minutes later a crisp left-footed shot from Ivica Olic gave Joe Hart his first work of the evening. The angle was against the Bayern player but he at least showed that this Bayern side was not going to be a pushover.
This may have been virtually a Bayern reserve side but it was nonetheless compact, well-organized, and clearly designed to frustrate the home side as much as possible.
When City requires a touch of genius to unlock a defense, it is invariably provided by David Silva (“El Magico”). The City faithful have taken the little Spaniard into their hearts as is evidenced by the banners around the stadium.
Silva duly curled a free kick from well outside the box directly into the Bayern net but his superb strike was ruled out for a foul on Bayern keeper Jorg Butt by Joleon Lescott.
Then at the 36 minute mark, El Magico again lived up to his nickname, gliding across the edge of the box before unleashing one of those trademark left-footed strikes past the keeper into the bottom corner of the Bayern net.
Aguero almost doubled City’s lead three minutes later as he cut through the Bayern defense with a strong run, but his effort was cleared off the line by former City defender Jerome Boateng.
Despair Around the City of Manchester
City did grab that second goal shortly after the break thanks to some nice interplay between the front players on the edge of the 18-yard box, which allowed Yaya Toure to collect the ball and coolly slot it home.
From that point on City adopted a more defensive posture, though Gareth Barry did sting Butt’s fingers with a well-struck drive from outside the box, which was certainly going in.
However, as the news came in from Spain that Napoli had taken the lead away to Villarreal and then gone two up, the City of Manchester stadium became quiet as the reality and hopelessness of the situation began to sink in. Notwithstanding the fact that several individual City players have considerable Champions League experience, as a team they are very much novices.
There is no doubt that they have improved as the group stage has progressed, but it was that nervous start on Match Day 1, resulting in a home defeat by Napoli, that virtually sealed their fate right at the outset.
Last Season’s Finalists Eliminated
The one consolation for the despondent City faithful was that arch rivals Manchester United were also ousted and will join City in the second-tier Europa League after Christmas.
Basel took the lead after only nine minutes when a collision between Nemanja Vidic and Chris Smalling left the latter pole axed on the turf. A weak clearance from keeper David De Gea then allowed Marco Streller to nip in and put the home side a goal to the good.
United enjoyed plenty of possession and created chances but it just was not their night, and the death blow came in the 84th minute, when Alexander Frei put the home side two up with a header off a routine cross that certainly should have been dealt with by the United defense.
Phil Jones finally pulled one back for last year’s finalists after substitute Federico Macheda had fired against the crossbar. But there was to be no miracle and United were shown the exit door.
It has to be said that this is a disaster for Manchester United. They moved to strengthen their squad in the summer in the hope of going one better than last year’s defeat in the final by Barcelona.
Certainly, one can talk about injuries, “bad luck,” and even the fact that the Basel pitch was heavy and not conducive to a technically high standard of football, but the fact remains that Sir Alex Ferguson and his team have committed the cardinal sin of complacency.
Looking at their group, the pundits declared it to be a foregone conclusion that United would easily come out on top. The English champions seemed to believe the tabloids, seriously underestimating both Benfica and Basel, and consequently paid the ultimate price.
