Manchester City survived a late scare to collect a point from their high-profile Europa League clash with Juventus last night
Manchester City survived a late scare to collect a point from their high-profile Europa League clash with Juventus last night.
Roberto Mancini's men had run out of attacking ideas themselves when veteran forward Alessandro Del Piero strode up to blast a free-kick off the underside of Joe Hart's crossbar.
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| Manchester City's forward Emmanuel Adebayor reacts after a miss during the UEFA Europa League football match against Juventus at The City of Manchester stadium yesterday. Pic/AFP |
Del Piero claimed the ball bounced in, but the merits of a goal-line assistant were plain to see as the official correctly ruled it had come down straight onto the goal-line.
It ensured parity for City against the team Mancini used to travel 10 hours on a bus to watch as a six-year-old after Adam Johnson had levelled Vincenzo Iaquinta's early opener before the break.
PoorCity did not really deserve any more ufffd and Emmanuel Adebayor was particularly poor.
On his long-awaited first start, Jerome Boateng fired a long-range effort wide. After that it was all Juve for 15 minutes, during which time the visitors took the lead.
That Iaquinta's blistering 30-yard effort should take the merest flick off Kolo Toure should not detract from the magnificence of his strike.
Despite rewarding Adebayor's superb training-ground performances with a start that shunted skipper Carlos Tevez onto the left wing, City struggled to exert any lasting pressure.
Claudio Marchisio might have booted off his own line but, if there is such a thing, it was a routine clearance and City had to wait until the half-hour mark had gone before they made their visitors shake.
City levelled on their next attack when Yaya Toure matched his eagle-eyed spot of Johnson's run inside with an inch-perfect slide rule pass that sent the winger clean through.
Meanwhile, Mancini confirmed Pablo Zabaleta will miss Manchester City's Premier League clash with Newcastle on Sunday.
The Argentina defender suffered a hamstring strain during Europa League draw with Juventus.
Liverpool stutterLiverpool's stuttering season yielded another forgettable performance yesterday when the English giants were held to a 0-0 draw at Dutch side FC Utrecht in the Europa League.
Roy Hodgson's side came close to conceding on numerous occasions, with Jan Wuytens seeing a first-half effort chalked off for a foul and Dries Mertens drawing a sharp save from Reds goalkeeper Pepe Reina in the 39th minute.
Liverpool were lucky to escape early in the second period when Raul Meireles had to head off the line from skipper Michael Silberbauer after Reina came for the ball at a corner and missed.
Fernando Torres produced another subdued performance.
