{"id":26421,"date":"2022-10-11T22:00:02","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T22:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=26421"},"modified":"2022-10-11T22:00:04","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T22:00:04","slug":"champions-league-copenhagen-0-0-manchester-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/10\/11\/champions-league-copenhagen-0-0-manchester-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions League: Copenhagen 0 – 0 Manchester City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Manchester City were as disjointed as they have been this season, yet still emerged with a draw against Copenhagen that all but secures qualification from Champions League Group G. On a night when Erling Haaland was rested, after starting all of their previous 12 games, Pep Guardiola\u2019s side did a rare thing: failed to score, though this and their lack of fluidity could be traced to Sergio G\u00f3mez\u2019s first half sending-off following a VAR review in a 45 minutes dominated \u2013 and, perhaps, blighted \u2013 by the out-of-stadium official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City also missed a penalty \u2013 Riyad Mahrez the culprit \u2013 but can be pleased with eking out a point that barring Sevilla, bottom of the standings, winning their last three matches, including by a high margin at the Etihad, means they travel to Liverpool on Sunday in relaxed mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a good workout for that challenge. Copenhagen were defiant throughout, as signalled by an early Hakon Arnar Haraldsson corner which was headed away by Kevin De Bruyne. Mohamed Daramy, another of the Danish attacking trident, was allowed to slalom along his left corridor before, this time, Ilkay G\u00fcndogan used his head to clear the No 15\u2019s chip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In between, Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez\u2019s angled shot from the left was tipped behind by Kamil Grabara, once of Liverpool, but no corner was awarded. This delighted the faithful in Parken Stadium as much as what occurred after Rodri rifled a superb volley beyond Grabara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a first time Artur Dias, the referee, was ordered to the pitchside monitor by the VAR and he crossed out the strike owing to a Mahrez handball before \u00c1lvarez\u2019s lay-off. The latter was in the XI thanks to Guardiola giving the man-of-the-season (so far) a rest, maybe with the trip to Anfield in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite being dismantled by the same opponent 5-0 last week Lukas Lerager further signalled Jacob Neestrup\u2019s men were in a feisty mood, the midfielder\u2019s 20-yard effort needing a timely Ederson hand to deflect it out. When Haraldsson flighted in the subsequent corner every City defender was caught ball-watching and the Brazilian \u2013 again \u2013 had to save his team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kamil<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kamil Grabara saves Riyad Mahrez\u2019s penalty. Photograph: Andrew Boyers\/Action Images\/Reuter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His opposite number, Grabara, did the same when Nicolai Boilesen was adjudged to have handled \u2013 again by Dias, again via the touchline TV \u2013 from a Mahrez corner and the referee pointed to the spot. The Algerian\u2019s effort was to the goalkeeper\u2019s right but he flung himself in the way to save impressively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VAR and the pitchside monitor\u2019s busy evening now had its third moment when Dias was told to review G\u00f3mez\u2019s challenge on Haraldsson. The Spaniard was the last man and when the referee finally did watch replays of the incident \u2013 he had allowed play to continue for some seconds \u2013 a free-kick was given and the red card raised over the left-back who ambled off with little complaint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cue Guardiola sacrificing Mahrez in a defensive rejig that had R\u00faben Dias coming on to operate in a three-man rearguard, as Manuel Akanji went to right wing-back and Jo\u00e3o Cancelo to this same role on the left. This was all ragged by the perfectionist standards of City, whose manager will have been displeased but, then, heartened regarding how his men rallied to end the period on top, despite being down to 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guardiola resisted introducing Haaland for the second half\u2019s start \u2013 and would until the final whistle. The noise inside the venue remained vibrant and raucous, the home fans raising the volume when two corners in quick succession were claimed as City were pinned back. Guardiola\u2019s side ooze quality, of course, so there was no surprise to see Cancelo, \u00c1lvarez and De Bruyne skate upfield and engineer an opening for the peerless Belgian to test Grabara with a cut and curled attempt from range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSpirited\u201d was an apt characterisation of each team. Duramy, along Copenhagen\u2019s left, looked to get at Dias when he could, embodying his side\u2019s approach as, too, did Jack Grealish whose bursts of pace moved City the other way \u2013 the winger, in one moment, creating a chance for De Bruyne who blazed disappointingly into the side-netting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City\u2019s instinct to rove forward had them still threatening Grabara\u2019s goal as the seconds ticked on, \u00c1lvarez rising near the goalkeeper\u2019s right post to steer a free header off target, while Marko Stamenic\u2019s late 20-yard shot, though wide, was illustrative of how Copenhagen fought all night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before kick-off their fans had sang a ditty to the tune of the Boomtown Rats\u2019 \u201cI don\u2019t like Mondays\u201d. By the end the visitors were quite partial to this Tuesday as this was job virtually done in a streetwise offering that showed how shrewd City now are in the elite continental competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be far tougher challenges to come but, at the end of the match, they walked off content and so move on to facing J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s men which Guardiola at the weekend described as always being City\u2019s litmus test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manchester City were as disjointed as they have been this season, yet still emerged with a draw against Copenhagen that all but secures qualification from Champions League Group G. On a night when Erling Haaland was rested, after starting all of their previous 12 games, Pep Guardiola\u2019s side did a rare thing: failed to score, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[6285,1725,1911,8924,9331,11381,5262,1099,6310,9026,7090,803,1966,8137,4761,9606,7031,500,6286,197,12791,11252,501,8126,12309,12187,11973,4082,5278,432,11604,8708,9720,11259,3306,5818,6584,10943,12790,3954,594,7898],"class_list":["post-26421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-anfield","tag-brazilian","tag-champions-league","tag-chance","tag-city","tag-complaint","tag-cut","tag-engineer","tag-erling-haaland","tag-fans","tag-games","tag-goalkeeper","tag-guardiola","tag-haaland","tag-jack-grealish","tag-julian-alvarez","tag-jurgen-klopp","tag-kevin-de-bruyne","tag-klopp","tag-liverpool","tag-manager","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-city","tag-match","tag-men","tag-n","tag-one","tag-pep-guardiola","tag-quality","tag-riyad-mahrez","tag-rodri","tag-ruben-dias","tag-sevilla","tag-shot","tag-steer","tag-strike","tag-travel","tag-watch","tag-weekend","tag-will","tag-who","tag-xi"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}