Borussia Dortmund 1 - 0 Manchester City: City Finish their Dismal European Campaign with another Loss

Manchester City's awful campaign in Europe finished with another poor performance to a Dortmund side lacking several key players, the same can be said about City, who had stars such as Silva and Toure missing from the team. Again, with many City matches, the comparison of the team's collective costs was subject to discussion, as Dortmund spent just £30m compared to City's £156m on the starting line-ups alone, the Manchester club has spent 5.2x, or 520% Dortmund, who's team still included talents such as Robert Lewandowski, Marco Reus and Mats Hummels. I feel this doesn't neccesarily pick out how much City have over-spent, but more how well the staff at BVB have done in terms of recovering from the dire financial position they found themselves in not very long at all ago.

City lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 formation though Mancini chose a weaker line-up considering that the Manchester club have no chance of qualification, and started with Hart in net, behind a back four of Nastasic, Kompany, Lescott and Maicon. Javi Garcia and Barry were protecting the defence with a trio of Sinclair, Tevez and Nasri ahead supporting Dzeko up front.

The home side were also without a number of top players, Weidenfeller started in net, with Hummels and Felipe Santana the two centre-backs, who were flanked by Schmelzer and Kirch on the left and right flanks. Gundogan and Leitner started in midfield, with Perisic and Grosskreutz supporting the striker Schieber from wide positions with Reus in the hole.

First Half

Dortmund Start off-Tempo

With a number of usual starters out of the first 11, the home side looked rather disjointed. We didn't see the usual build-up from Dortmund with Weidenfeller playing quite a few ineffective long balls up to Schieber which resulted in Kompany and co. winning the aerial battle for City. I think the 'keeper had to resort to more long balls as Felipe Santana seemed initially reluctant to take the ball off of Weidenfeller, amongst others, and that accompanied with City's good initial pressing to cut off the passes to Hummels, made it so that a long ball was often the 'keeper's only option.

And then Grow into the Game

Gradually the home side became more like their usual quality, and the quick transitions and intense pressing became more common at around the 30 minute mark onward. If they were against any other team, they may have had to pay for their rather slow start, however City looked very mundane as usual in Europe. In defence the home side looked very comfortable against a Manchester attack which failed to create many chances, and Leitner and Gundogan were impressive in the centre.

Nastasic Uncomfortable at Left-back

Without Gael Clichy at the left side of defence, young defender Matija Nastasic had to fill in at full-back. The 19-year-old Serb has fitted into City's team well in the centre of defence after joining from Fiorentina during pre-season, however he didn't look as reliable at left-back against Dortmund despite making the most interceptions in the match (5).

Nastasic definitely looked out-of-place and there was one particular instance at around the 1/3rd mark where Marco Reus cut inside from the right flank with ease as the Serb was stuck. His distribution from the flank also looked unlike a natural full-back, especially compared to his teammate Maicon, who made quite a few contributions to the attack.

Second Half

 

Poor Pressing from City leads to Dortmund Goal

 

Mancini's team started the second half poorly, as their opposition grew from how the ended the first half and looked to getting even better. One thing City failed to do was to close down Dortmund well, the players were often found with too much time on the ball and cut through Manchester City's defence on numerous occasions despite not having Gotze, Piszceck and Lewandowski in the starting 11 - if it wasn't for Hart in goal, Dortmund would have definitely scored more.

After Scoring, BVB sit Deeper

After scoring through Julian Schieber, Dortmund were happy to sit deeper with a more compact system which was similar to a 4-1-4-1 than a 4-2-3-1 which they usually set out in. Chances were a rarity for City and, whilst staying compact at the back, Dortmund looked threatening on the break, especially when they brought on the pace of Kuba on the right flank and the home side tested Hart well on numerous occasions.


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