Manchester City 2-2 Ajax: Aguero nets equaliser but hosts edge closer to elimination

Posted Wednesday, November 07, 2012 by Goal.com

Despite coming back from two goals down, the Premier League holders are on the brink of failing to advance to the knock-out stages for the second consecutive season

By Wayne Veysey at Etihad Stadium

The pressure intensified on Roberto Mancini as Manchester City drew 2-2 with Ajax to face almost certain elimination from the Champions League.

Mancini’s side can still mathematically qualify for the knock-out stages but it is a long shot after they failed to beat the Group D underdogs at home.

Ajax captain Siem de Jong took advantage of City’s shocking defending at corners to put the visitors 2-0 up after 17 minutes.

Yaya Toure reduced the deficit soon afterwards with an acrobatic volley to give his team hope they could still be in the competition by the time they host Real Madrid in three weeks’ time.

And Sergio Aguero scored the equaliser with 16 minutes left, but Ajax defended stoutly to keep out a late City charge.

The draw leaves City rooted to the bottom of the toughest of the eight Champions League groups, with just two points, five adrift of second-placed Borussia Dortmund.

Mancini's team teeter on the precipice, requiring victories from the final two matches - home to Real and away to Dortmund - and other results to go their way to be involved in the competition in February.

For this must-win fixture, Man City made three changes from the team that drew 0-0 at West Ham last Saturday, with Aguero, Pablo Zabaleta and the fit-again Javi Garcia replacing Mario Balotelli, Edin Dzeko and the injured Kolo Toure.

With City experiencing a glut of defensive injuries, there was one unfamiliar face on the substitute’s bench in the form of 18-year-old centre-back Courtney Meppen-Walter, a member of City’s development squad.

The rookie could hardly have defended worse than his more senior colleagues early on as Ajax seized upon some dreadful marking to score twice from corners.

After nine minutes, Matija Nastasic demonstrated how raw he is at this level by, first, making a horrible hash of his clearance to concede a corner from a low cross and, then, failing to deal with the resulting set piece, prodding the ball back across goal to allow De Jong to loft in the opener.

Eight minutes later, alarmingly lax marking from City allowed De Jong to steal in to meet a near-post inswinger and guide his free header past Joe Hart.

Ajax may not have sold out the away end but the visiting fans were by now bouncing up and down in co-ordinated jollity as the Group D underdogs scented a famous win and an improbable passage into the Champions League knock-out stages.

Toure pulled one back for City after 22 minutes with a fabulous piece of skill, chesting down a cross at the back post and then volleying past Kenneth Vermeer in one swift movement.

The home side looked dangerous every time they attacked but a brilliant clearance from Ricardo van Rhijn and Zabaleta’s failure to take advantage of a fine headed opportunity meant that Ajax ended an even half with a 2-1 advantage.

Mancini went all-out attack after the break, replacing Garcia with Balotelli and it was a move that paid dividends as the Italian’s flick-on set up Aguero for the equaliser.

Oddly, the Argentine’s footing had let him down on a number of occasions in good positions during the game but he managed to stay on his feet after 74 minutes when Balotelli headed on Hart’s goal-kick to slickly level the scores.