Manchester City win but leaky defence called into question

Manchester City 4-2 Viktoria Plzen

Manchester City made it 10 goals in their last two matches after sweeping aside their opponents who, after five matches, have yet to pick up a point in the tournament.

City are going from strength to strength in this years tournament after a couple of shaky seasons in Europe. Joe Hart returned to the starting eleven after being taken out of the limelight for a month and was blameless for Viktoria Plzen’s two goals and put in a solid performance.

Sergio Aguero opened the scoring from the spot after half an hour then Tomas Horava equalised before half time. Samir Nasri put City back in front until Stanislav Tecl levelled again. With just over 10 minutes left Alvaro Negredo made the score 3-2 and just a minute from time Edin Dzeko put the result beyond doubt.

KEY STATS:

Manuel Pellegrini’s side dominated large parts of the game and had the lion’s share of possession; 55% to Plzen’s 45%. They were also far better at distributing the ball and retaining possession with an impressive 82% of passes completed. Their opponents were only successful in 74% of theirs. Taking tackling into account, City won 79% of their attempted tackles while Plzen won just 57%.

With the shot count being relatively even, Plzen managed just two less in total, and the away side having far, far more corners, 11 to three, the lack of possession, pass completion and tackle success from Plzen, and the success Manchester City had in those areas were the difference between the two and the reason that the home side came out victorious.

Man of the Match:

Nasri’s passing was excellent last night

Samir Nasri took the award tonight with an impressive display that saw him pick up a Squawka Performance Score of 71, beating Horava who managed 55.

The France international was impressive in front of goal on Wednesday night. With three shots taken one hit the back of the net, another, hit from distance, hit the woodwork in spectacular fashion, while the other was put just wide.

Of 39 passes attempted only two did not find a Manchester City team-mate, an impressive 95% pass completion. He also made four key passes in the game.

In attack he was impervious and won the Man of the Match award despite coming off 15 minutes from time.

Performance Score:

Both teams remained fairly close in terms of Performance Score until Man City’s second goal, by which time the Blues started to press home their advantage.

At half-time, with the score poised at 1-1, the Performance Scores were 41 to City and 30 to Plzen, at the time Nasri’s goal went in to make it 2-1 City were on 186 while their opponents were on -72.

The graph reflects the effort that Plzen put in and how much of a fight they put up but also how dominant City were once they gained the upper hand.

Key Observations:

Joe Hart, back in the team after losing his place to Costel Pantilimon for the last few games, let in two goals but for all the will of the media no blame could be placed at his door. In addition he saved Plzen’s other four shots on target well. Hart looked solid throughout the games as well as confident.

James Milner got a rare start and did not really seize his opportunity. Deployed in a wide position he only attempted two crosses while his overall pass completion was decidedly average at 74% and none of them were key passes.