Juventus 1 Manchester City 1:IN THE end, there was a satisfactory outcome for Manchester City. Jo's 77th-minute equaliser ensures they qualify for the next stage of the competition as group winners and that, in theory, should carry its rewards when the draw is made in Nyon, Switzerland, today.
It was a strange evening, with vast expanses of empty seats inside this historic old stadium and little to remind us why Juventus are one of the great names of European football. There was also another demonstration of some of the issues in Italian football when a section of fans aimed monkey noises at Patrick Vieira, a returning Juventus player.
There were not even 7,000 fans inside the Stadio Olimpico and a quarter of that number came from Manchester, City’s travelling supporters rewarded for trying to create the semblance of an atmosphere when Jo scored with a confident left-foot finish from Adam Johnson’s pass.
The Brazilian had earlier put the ball into the net only for his effort to be wrongly disallowed for offside. The draw was the least that City deserved even if there was a spell when it looked as though Niccolo Giannetti’s goal, late in the first half, would mean Mancini’s team finishing as runners-up to Lech Poznan and potentially facing one of the four stronger teams to drop down from the Champions League.
A delegation led by Brian Marwood, City’s football administrator, will be present in Switzerland for draw for the last 32 while Mancini prepares to meet Carlos Tevez for the first time since the Argentinian went public with his apparent wishes for a transfer. At least City have shown in the last week that they can produce decent results without their best player.
Uppermost in Mancini’s mind is ascertaining whether the situation is beyond repair. The manager is sceptical that Tevez is as unhappy in Manchester as portrayed and wants to establish whether the player is genuinely intent on leaving. A decision will then be made about whether Tevez will retain the captaincy when Everton visit Eastlands on Monday, and whether he is in the right frame of mind to play.
His absence last night was purely because City had already qualified for the next stage and Mancini had decided to rest most of his first team.
City had to cope with the enduring quality of Alessandro Del Piero and, a minute before half-time, this wonderfully talented and incisive footballer, now 36, evaded Richards inside the penalty area. His low cross picked out Gianetti in the six-yard area, and the striker darted in front of Dedryck Boyata to diverted the ball past Given off the outside of his boot. In the end, his sense of grievance mattered little. Johnson found Jo and the striker took one touch to open an angle for himself to score with a clinical shot.
JUVENTUS:Manninger, Grygera, Legrottaglie, Chiellini, Traore (Boniperti 66), Krasic (Camilleri 56), Sissoko, Felipe Melo, Pepe, Giannetti (Buchel 79), Del Piero. Subs not used: Storari, Iaquinta, Bonucci, Giandonato. Booked: Felipe Melo, Sissoko.
MANCHESTER CITY:Given, Boateng, Richards, Boyata, Bridge, Wright-Phillips (Chantler 90), Milner, Vieira, Adam Johnson, Jo, Nimely (Zabaleta 61). Subs not used: Taylor, Kay, Mee, Ibrahim, Elabdellaoui. Booked: Zabaleta.
Referee:Istvan Vad (Hungary).
