YAYA SPECIAL HELPS CITY ROAST KIEV
Yaya’s special strike gives City a cushion after Kiev fight back
MANCHESTER CITY are on the verge of reaching the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time after a convincing away win over Dynamo Kiev. Yaya Toure capped a fine display with a superb last-minute goal after Sergio Aguero and David Silva had put City in the driving seat.
Breakthrough night? It may be Yaya toure’s parting gift to the club. the third goal here, scored with a minute remaining, at last made Manchester City comfortable in a game they should have won with ease.
a two-goal away cushion should be enough to put City into the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time, even given their penchant for calamity in this competition.
the hope is that they can build on that improvement, if not this season, then next. Confidence will grow with each new adventure, certainly when serial winner Pep guardiola arrives to coach this group and its various upgrades next season. So will toure be around to reap the rewards of this deep run to the last eight? Will he be there for the real breakthrough? It is unlikely.
So if this wasn’t his parting shot, it was certainly one that will be nice to remember him by. City had laboured in the second half, allowing kiev back into the game, shielding a slender lead from a match that at one stage looked like a cakewalk. and then toure popped up, as he so often has, to take the play to a different level.
It is why he remains City’s most frustrating player as well as, on his day, their finest. he can be truly unstoppable. So why isn’t he, more often? Why are more matches not concluded, more of City’s crises just brushed away, as this one was — with a magnificent flourish of that left foot? he should be the player guardiola is desperate to keep, not the one he will casually toss aside.
Makethe most of it, then. Make the most of him. the way he cut inside, the beautifully curling shot out of reach of oleksandr Shovkovskiy in kiev’s goal. Some strikers pass the ball into the net. toure, at his best, almost caresses it, like a gentle lover. he gives it a tender hug and then sends it on its way.
It is a supreme gift. having exchanged passes with Fernandinho, once in range, the conclusion was never in doubt.
unlike the result. an emphatic scoreline like this may suggest a City masterclass away from home in europe, but the performance wouldn’t quite justify that billing. City should have breezed through, the second leg a formality from some way out.
Instead, until toure scored the third, they had left themselves with a little to do against a Dynamo kiev side who will be readier and fitter by next month, despite considerable deficiencies.
Somehow, having been two goals clear and completely in control at half-time, City ended up shielding a 2-1 lead for much of the second half and at times were clinging on.
kiev, against all expectations, dominated after the break and pulled a goal back through Vitaliy Buyalskiy after 59 minutes. City were never behind and led for 75 minutes of the match but they failed to convince that they could progress if paired with a team of true quality in the next round.
they will need the luck of the draw again, which they got here by pulling out Dynamo, a team who prepared for their biggest european fixture in 17 years with two months off.
that rustiness certainly explained City’s dominance of the first half, which was close to complete. they went a goal up after 15 minutes, added a second after 40 and looked set fair to put the tie to bed within 90 minutes.
at which point, kiev manager Sergei rebrov must have read the riot act in the dressing- room because the team that came out after the interval was an entirely different proposition. So were City. required to put in the hard yards against a kiev group that showed talent, once they shook off the sluggishness, Manuel Pellegrini’s side struggled for long spells.
It was, as ever, Sergio aguero who separated the sides. he scored his 16th goal in 17 Champions League starts to set City on their way, then set up the second with some old-fashioned centre-forward play. he really is an exceptional player. Watching aguero in europe shows what arsenal are missing. Why can’t they get beyond the last 16? Because they lack a striker who can define Champions League matches as aguero does.
aguero’s goal highlighted the difficulty teams from the east face in this tournament. kiev looked exactly like a team devoid of competitive action since December. David Silva took a corner which was headed down by toure, and aguero had the time and space to run on to it, get the target lined up, and shoot past Shovkovskiy.
It was aguero again who helped create the second, holding the ball up magnificently before bringing raheem Sterling into the game. his cross was perfect for Silva at the far post, faced with the simplest conversion.
and then, somehow, it all seemed to slip away from City. Local hero andrei Yarmolenko — who has disappointed Liverpool, and others, by signing a new contract — brought his side back into the game, constantly getting the better of gael Clichy.
and then, a stroke of good fortune. Nicolas otamendi’s headed clearance went straight to Buyalskiy, and his shot clipped the defender on the return to take it past Joe hart. Suddenly, kiev were revitalised.
over in a far corner, boisterous fans stripped off their shirts in the freezing night, a sign of bravery, defiance and no little madness. a sea of blue became a sea of pink, and goosepimples. It is hard to imagine there is any quantity of vodka that can fully insulate against this cold, half naked.
Whata turnaround. It is 17 years since kiev last visited the knockout stages of the Champions League, and December since they last played a competitive game. as City dominated and these absences showed, the olympic Stadium descended into stunned silence.
It could not have been much quieter here, even if ueFa had carried out their initial plan to close the stadium for racist chanting. the organisers relented on the punishment — a one-game closure, already served, rather than three — and decided to fight racism with announcements, slogans and messages from celebrity footballers instead.
It is a huge arena, but kiev cannot fill it these days. the russian conflict has left ukrainian football in a state of disrepair. Donetsk is a warzone and kiev have lost a key sponsor in the financial upheaval affecting the country.
Now, however, the club was reawakened and every foray forward was met with a roar. there were enough of them, too.
hart and Buyalskiy squared up again in the 79th minute, this time england’s goalkeeper coming out on top with a world- class onehanded save that denied his opponent an equaliser.
kiev may even have thought themselves unlucky not to be level before toure scored, such was their second-half impetus.
City, equally, will point to the fact that toure missed a sitter — a header from a Sterling cross that was far easier to convert than his goal.
he had the final word, though, just as he will wish with guardiola coming. he most certainly has the ability. If he has the inclination, he could yet go out on a high.