Man of the Match: No doubt, it’s Joe Hart. Manchester City’s goalkeeper came up with seven saves, many of them on point blank shots, keeping his team alive for 89 minutes. It will be easy for people (including myself) to say Manchester City didn’t deserve a point for this game, but only one team had Joe Hart. City deserves credit for nurturing him. Today was part of their payoff. For one day, Hart lived up to the hyperbolic claims he is the world’s best goalkeeper.
Packaged for takeaway:
- Aside from an initial, mind-numbing first 20 minutes (that you should just fast forward through, if you’re going to watch this later), Borussia Dortmund was clearly the better side. Able to move with ease through City’s defense, Dortmund outshot the English champions 22-12.
- Roman Weidenfeller did have to make two big saves of his own in the first half, stopping Sergio Agüero and Edin Dzeko after City’s forwards beat BVB’s high line.
- In truth, it wasn’t so much the whole defense that City beat as much as Neven Subotic, who had a poor day. Running in front of Subotic and behind Hummels, City’s forwards were able to get on to passes played behind the defense. At times Subotic was lagging behind the rest of BVB’s line, at others he was just beaten for pace. Regardless, it was a problem BVB had to solve.
- Eventually pressure through the midfield helped protect BVB’s defense. Ilkay Gundogan came up from his holding role to play along side Jacob Blaszczykowski, playing much of the match through the middle while Marco Reus went left (Mario Götze right). The line of four through the middle harassed Yaya Touré and Jack Rodwell, the latter coming on in the 34th minute for an injured Javi García.
- The Rodwell substitution looked like it was going to be decisive when his turnover led to BVB’s goal. His 61st minute square ball was intercepted by Reus at the edge of City’s defensive third. Reus streaked in past an unprepared defense to beat Hart for what looked like it would be the match winner.
- Subotic had something to say about that. In the 89th minute, Agüero turned on a left-footed volley at a sharp ankle right of goal. The shot hit Subotic squarely on an outstretched right arm. It was ball-to-hand, but it was a call every referee in the world would make, giving Mario Balotelli the opportunity to salvage a point for City.
- Tracking back to a question asked in the preview, was this match BVB’s breakthrough? They certainly outplayed a big team, and while they may not have gotten full points, we’re smart enough to see the disparity between the teams.
- But that disparity seemed more Manchester City’s doing than Dortmund’s. It’s difficult to imagine this match being played again and City being this bad. The central defense was terrible, the midfield was non-existent, meaning the forwards had little service. It’s not often we see Vincent Kompany and Yaya Touré marginalized like this.
- The performance leaves City on one point through two rounds, and while they have a back-to-back with Ajax coming up, they’ll be under pressure to get full points. If they get them, they’ll be on seven with matches at home with Real Madrid and at Borussia Dortmund. Thanks to today’s draw, they’re probably going to need BVB to stumble (perhaps in that matchday six game in Dortmund) to avoid a second straight trip to Europa League.
- For Dortmund, it could prove a huge result. They got a point, but perhaps more importantly, they kept Manchester City from full points. Even if they lose both upcoming matches with Real Madrid, they’ll be at most three points behind City when they face Ajax on matchday five.
