City of Manchester Stadium: Home of Manchester City(credit:
Wikipedia)
Ten-man Manchester City earned a 1-0 second-leg win over Dynamo Kiev, but it was not enough to keep them in the Europa League.
City needed to overturn a two-goal deficit from the first leg of the last-16 tie and they dominated the first half, but Mario Balotelli missed a gilt-edged chance inside the opening five minutes when he blazed the ball over the crossbar from inside the six-yard box.
The Italian forward then headed another opportunity over the crossbar, and his night worsened on 36 minutes when he was shown a red card for his stud-first boot into the midriff of Goran Popov, making City’s task all the more challenging.
They responded well, however, and went ahead three minutes later when David Silva laid the ball off for Aleksandar Kolarov and the defender unleashed a low strike from distance that flew into the Kiev net.
But there would be no heroics in the second half as City’s fading players failed to challenge visiting goalkeeper Olexandr Shovkovskiy, with Micah Richards heading over a decent chance.
And at the other end Denys Garmash would have made it 3-1 on aggregate but he was denied by a goal-line clearance from Joleon Lescott.