Read the full match report here:
My goodness, what a finish that was. City really needed those three points and boy did they leave it late. Back in the dressing room, there will be plenty of hugs for De Bruyne, who was outstanding for City tonight and if anyone was going to score that winning goal it was going to be him. City will be happy but Sevilla will be disappointed to leave with nothing but tired legs. They have City up next at home and they will be out for revenge. That should be a belter too. That’s all from me. Thanks for all the emails and tweets. Night!
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Full-time: Manchester City 2-1 Sevilla
Phew! That’s your lot!
90 +3 mins De Bruyne is replaced by Kompany. City go to five at the back Corner to Sevilla. Can they do it? No!
City do like their late goals in the Champions League, don’t they? Touré picked the ball up in the middle of the pitch and in space he turned and ran at goal. Wide on his right-hand side was De Bruyne. He found him and the Belgian made his way into the box. He cut inside and as the defenders backed off he fired the ball into the far corner of Rico’s net.
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GOAL! Manchester City 2-1 Sevilla ( De Bruyne, 90 +1 mins)
That should win it for them!
90 mins Matt Dony responds. “It’s an excellent story, based on an interesting a convincing premise, but the dialogue! It doesn’t read like people talking (although it is less expository than much of his work, in fairness.) I like his work, but his writing is technically not in the same ball park as, say, Ray Bradbury. Sorry, Gary Naylor. It’s a dangerous place to be on and MBM, but I need to disagree with you.” There will four more minutes added on. Before the board gave us that information, Touré had a fizzer of a shot stopped by a strong palm from Rico.
88 mins Sevilla get a free just inside the City half because Fernandinho’s studs were a touch too high. Krohn-Dehli floats it into the box but a Sevilla floats it out for a goalkick. City go on the counter with De Bruyne. Wide on the right, he sends the ball scuttering across the Sevilla box but Sterling cannot get there in time to poke it home. In fairness to Sterling, the pass was a bit too fast.
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86 mins How can 800 fans out sing the rest of the crowd? In the other game in this group, by the way, Borussia Mönchengladbach are drawing 0-0 with Juventus in Turin.
84 mins Corner to Sevilla. Hart barks out some instructions. Krohn-Dehli takes it but the corner is not a good one. Navas cuts it out at the front post. Coke gives the captain’s armband to Iborra before he trots off the pitch to the sound of the 800 away fans singing his name. He is replaced by Mariano Ferreira.
82 mins Sterling has the ball at his feet in a dangerous position near the Sevilla box. On his outside, steaming down the wing is Kolarov. He overtakes Sterling and expects the ball to land at his feet so he can put one acorss the box. But instead of that happening the attacker puts it out over the line – he must have been watching Ian Madigan the other day. The whole stadium sighs.
80 mins What have you got to say about that Dony?
@ianmccourt Matt Dony is so wrong about PKD! Here's proof - https://t.co/9p0sRPS1yZ. The greatest short story I've read!
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) October 21, 2015
78 mins Bony has been replaced by Fernando. De Bruyne moves to the false nine position. You would expect Touré to be given licence to roam forward a bit more. Time for Sevilla to make a change too. Konoplyanka goes and N’Zonzi comes.
76 mins You might want to cast your eyes over this:
Anthony Lane's New Yorker review of Revenge of the Sith is a work of genius - https://t.co/GqZEC8WRZb. @ianmccourt
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) October 21, 2015
Back in the game, Krohn-Dehli gets the ball inside the City half on the left-hand side. Not one player in blue puts the pressure on him so he runs at goal and shoots at goal. His effort is diverted wide and a corner it is. Konoplyanka takes it but it comes to nothing.
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74 mins City go on the attack again and get a corner again. It misses everyone.
72 mins So our referee reckoned that Gameiro actually handled the ball in the last passage of play and has booked him. What an odd decision. Down the other end inside the Sevilla box, De Bruyne shapes and shapes and shapes and eventually shoots. When he does so, there is a wall of red jerseys in front of him and the ball goes out for a corner. That comes to nothing.
70 mins Come on City, cry the home fans but it is Sevilla who are coming on. They attack down the left and the ball is sent to the middle of the City box towards the feet of Iborra. He scuffs his volley meaning instead of finding the net – as it almost certainly would if he caught it correctly – it finds the body of Gameiro and is diverted out for a goalkick.
68 mins Banega, who was carrying an injury, makes way for Krohn-Dehli. Matt Dony, meanwhile, has emailed in. He says:
The biggest problem with the Star Wars prequels (after Hayden Christensen’s acting, which has been covered) is that George Lucas can not write screenplays. Ideas? Yes. Imagination? Fantastic. Dialogue and a coherent story? Not a chance. Same problem with the books of Philip K Dick, although no one will ever admit to it. Wonderful ideas, executed hideously.
Back to the game, De Bruyne has just pulled one wide from the edge of the box.
64 mins No, they can’t. The free-kick was swung over and Rico just punched it wide. Sevilla did not clear their lines properly though so Sterling can set up Touré. He cuts inside and whacks one but he had more chance of hitting the corner flag than the back of the net. Iborra, incidentally, got a booking for that challenge on Navas.
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62 mins Zabaleta gets a chance to get to the showers early as he is replaced by Kolarov. His introduction means Sagna goes to right back and Kolarov takes over on the left. Meanwhile, Navas twinkle-toes his way past a player or two before he is taken down by Iborra, just outside the on the right. Can they do something with this?
60 mins Have just seen a replay of that Gameiro miss. It will keep him awake tonight if his side fail to get anything from this game. Meanwhile, Coke takes a throw deep in the City half. He plays a one-two and looks to muscle his way down the wing and into the City box before losing control and possession.
58 mins Fernandinho gets plenty of grass to run into and as he strides forward he picks out De Bruyne on the left. The Belgian points his nose in the direction of the box and puts the ball into the zone of danger. Kolodziejczak – I think – whacks it away.
56 mins Another big chance for Gameiro and another big miss. Trémoulinas attacks down the left-hand side. Under pressure, he floats the ball over to Gameiro. The striker is under no pressure and in space just meters out from the goal but he somehow contrives to put the ball over the bar. That is a bad miss.
54 mins Chris Ross has been in touch. It’s a long one.
The Return Of The Sith is a pile of (insert something sweary). Yes, it’s the best prequel. That is damning with the faintest praise. There is absolutely no way a child or adult can look at Heyden Christensen (spelling? I don’t care) and think that whinging twerp could grow up to be Darth Vader.
The CGI is ludicrous. The bit where Darth Vader gets lavad (lava’d? Lavaed?) by Obi-wan is perhaps the most needlessly violent thing I have ever seen. And I’ve seen Stallone’s Cobra. The prequels are badly written, badly plotted and dreadfully act.
There is no fat on Star Wars. It is pretty much beginning to end action with minimal exposition. Empire Strikes Back gets a bit dull on Dagobah but the Hoth and Bespin parts are amazing. And Return of the Jedi is great. Yeah, Ewoks. But I’m old enough to tolerate them. The whole Jabba section is brilliant tension and action and the showdown at the end is superbly paced. None of the prequels can get close.
Age has nothing to do with it. I was nowhere near middle aged when I saw the final prequel. Kids like rubbish films. I have kids. They like good TV like Adventure Time. They like dross such as My Little Pony and Frozen. When he hears his wife’s died, Vader actually drops to his knees, grasps the sky and yells ‘Nooooooo!’ for fucks sake!
Rant over. As you were.
52 mins Konoplyanka is back on the pitch as Sevilla attack down the right through Coke. That attack is stopped just outside the City box and the home side counter with speed. De Bruyne has wandered to the right side and has the ball at his feet. He tests the Spanish defence and it holds firm.
50 mins Konoplyanka is down and holding his right knee. He really looks to be in some pain. The reason? Navas left his studs in his knee when swiping the ball clear. If he goes off, City will be delighted. He has been a menace all day.
48 mins Hart gets caught in possession in his own box. He should boot the ball clear but, with Gameiro bearing down on him, he tries to do a Cruyff turn. He fails miserably and just about gets away with it. Down the other end of the pitch, Bony is the first player to go in the yellow book after he flicked his fingers in the direction of Krychowiak’s face. Krychowiak made the most of it.
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46 mins No half-time changes from either side to tell you about, in case you are wondering.
45 mins We are back for the second half of the match and we are back with an email from Mike MacKenzie. “Like Simon McMahon I’ve not seen any of the Back to the Future flicks despite a Canadian being the star. Similarly I’ve managed to miss the second trilogy (parts 1 - 3, of course) of Star Wars though I thought the initial trilogy was superb. Do I win a prize? PS: I saw Bridge of Spies yesterday and it was excellent!” Eh, no but thanks for the free review.
Half-time: Manchester City 1-1 Sevilla
Well that went rather quick, didn’t it? Back in two shakes of lamb’s tail, which should be enough time for Pellegrini to reorganise his side so they are not getting over-run in midfield and are not a bit of a mess at the back.
45 mins There will be two minutes of time added on.
42 mins Have just seen a replay of the goal. It might actually go down as an OG as it looked like it clipped the heels of Rami when going in. Anyway, back to the game. A Konoplyanka shot is blocked and Sevilla have a corner. Touré clears that but not far enough. The ball comes back in and Mangala makes a hash of his clearance. This means the ball is chipped by Krychowiak to Gameiro who does a diving header over the bar. He should’ve scored that but even if he did, it would not have counted as he was incorrectly ruled offside.
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40 mins Hart gets the attention of the doctors after getting a knock on the arm. No need to worry we’ll get some jewellery for your momma he’s A-OK.
City had been on the attack for the last few minutes and it has finally told. Touré picked the ball up just inside the Spanish half. He powered his way forward with the ball at his feet before exchanging passes with Navas. With the ball back at his feet, Touré made his way into the box and on the end line he used his skill and strength to hold off Rami and cut the ball back for Sterling. He shot at goal but Rico saved. However, his save was palmed into the path of Bony who poked the ball home from a few yards out.
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GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Sevilla (Bony, 36 mins)
Well that didn’t take long, did it?
36 mins “Yes they [the Star Wars movies] are ALL varying degrees of fantastic” shouts Sean Cassidy. “I am sick of middle aged nerd complaining that the prequels did not stand up to the originals. Maybe they are not 10 years old anymore, might have has something to do with the lost magic. Yes Jar-Jar was an idiotic character, but the Ewoks?! Revenge of the Sith is nearly up there with Empire.”
34 mins City have responded with a few attacks of their own. Sterling and Touré had shots blocked and Bony had a weak header on goal.
Well, well, Pellegrini might regret not starting Kompany now becuase the City defence looks to be all at sea here. Sevilla had the ball on the corner of the box. It was allowed to bounce off a couple of shins and find its way into the path of Vitolo. He stepped down the line and cut the ball back. In acres and acres of space in the middle of the City box stood Konoplyanka. He did not miss.
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GOAL! Manchester City 0-1 Sevilla (Konoplyanka, 30 mins)
They deserve that.
28 mins Banega picks the ball up in the middle of the park. He notices that Sagna is off in another world dreaming about unicorns and he pokes the ball into the space behind him. The ball finds the run of Konoplyanka and he bears down on goal like an angry mob on their unfortunate target. However, luck for City, Mangala is alert to the danger and he slides across to block Vitolo’s shot. The resulting corner comes to nothing.
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26 mins “Just to say,” says Charles Antaki, “that over on the other MBM they’re discussing the new Star Wars movie.” You know the way Simon McMahon said he never saw any of the Back to the Future movies, well the same for me with Star Wars. Don’t see what all the fuss is about to be honest. Are they any use?
24 mins City got two corners after that shot from Touré but they both came to nothing.
22 mins Sevilla get their sixth corner of the game. Will it be sixth time lucky? Eh, no. The ball is floated across but it is Sagna and not a Sevilla player who rises the highest. His header gives the Manchester City defence some relief for now. Down the other end, City go much closer. A wonderful one-two between Sterling and De Bruyne tees up Touré for an effort from outside the box. He sends it goalwards and it takes a deflection on its way meaning it ends up just skimming the bar.
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18 mins Goodness me! It’s been all City but Sevilla have almost taken the lead. The Spanish side got a free-kick wide on the right-hand side, outside the City box. Konoplyanka took that and fooled Hart but not the post. His effort came back off the woodwork with a most satisfying ping.
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16 mins City get a throw. The ball comes to Touré. He passes and finds the feet of Sterling. The ex Liverpool player takes the ball in and spins wonderfully before galloping towards goal. On his left is the run of De Bruyne. Sterling finds him and the Belgian finds himself in the box. He shoots for the far corner but his shot drags wides.
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14 mins Zabaleta is down injured. He looks to be in some amount of pain and well he should. He just got a knock where it hurts from Krychowiak. The camera pans to the bench and Kolarov is chuckling to himself. Maybe over the incident, maybe because Kompany, who is sitting beside him, has told a good joke.
12 mins Gulp!
@ianmccourt if you keep mentioning Back to the Future im afraid im just gonna have to switch over to the CSKA/MU mbm. i hate those films.
— BarneeH (@BarneyHorner) October 21, 2015
10 mins Just after that cross, Navas tried a shot from distance that came this close. He didn’t score but Bony might have. City attacked down the left. The ball came to De Bruyne on the edge of the box on the left and he slid the ball across the box. Touré, free in the middle, air-kicked it and it came to Bony. He swiped from the centre of the box but his swipe was weak and Rico saved it easily enough.
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8 mins Navas bursts forward and finds Bony. He is bundled over just outside the centre circle. Touré takes the free-kick and plays it short to the right. City try to make hay down that wing but find their route blocked. They try the left and then try the right once more. It comes to Navas once more. He swings the ball over with speed but, alas, no accuracy and Kolodziejczak clears it.
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6 mins Sevilla want a penalty but they aren’t getting one. The ball was bouncing around the City box and it found its way into the path of Zabaleta. It looked, at first, that the ball hit his arm but replays show that it was his head upon which the ball landed.
4 mins Sevilla via Gameiro swan their way down the right-hand side of the pitch. City clear the clear and present danger but the Spanish side come right back at them and win a corner, the first of the game. It is a poor one and Zabaleta gets his foot in the way and whacks it away.
2 mins It looks like City have lined up in a 4-4-2 formation. It’s almost like they haven’t learned, isn’t it? No action to tell you about just yet, the players are just stroking the ball around the pitch, feeling their way into the game.
1 min Off we go then. Sevilla, in their candy stripes, play right to left. City are draped in their usual shade of off-cheese blue. It is the home side that get us going. In other news, tonight’s referee, when he is not refereeing, is a butcher. Would you say he has a steak in the business? Sorry. So, so sorry.
The players have made their way through the tunnel, through the hugs and through the boot and necklace check by the men in charge. The Champions League anthem is blasted out (and booed/whistled for some reason or other) and the hands of players and officials alike are offered and accepted. It’s almost time to get going.
So before the football could kick off, some chair throwing, fighting and arrests kicked off in Manchester City centre. Sigh. Here is the story in full.
“I’m glad you’re ripping on Back To The Future Part II,” thrills Ed Bottomley. “But don’t touch Part III. Part III may not be as good as the first one but it is MILES better than the second.” I always thought you had better judgement than that Ed, I really did. You’ve let me down, but not only have you let me down, you’ve also let down the readers of this here MBM and, perhaps most importantly, yourself.
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“Evening Ian,” cheers Simon McMahon. “Haven’t seen any of the BTTF films, but always liked the title. The idea that time is not linear is very appealing to me, because it means that somewhere in space, right now, Dundee United are in the Big Cup final, and Scotland are world champions. And I’m young, fit and good-looking.” Is Simon the only person in the world right now who has never seen any of the Back to the Future movies?
Let’s just say what we were all thinking today when that Back to the Future stuff was getting rammed down our throats. The first one is miles better than the second one. Actually, it’s not even miles better, it’s millions of miles in another galaxy where miles count for double better. And let’s not even get started on the third one.
Dramatis personæ
So here they are then, in all their glory. Manchester City make exactly zero changes from the side that trampled all over Bournemouth, which means, most importantly, that Vincent Kompany starts from the bench. That is a very, very, very big call/gamble/roll of the dice from the Manchester City manager. You would also expect City to line up as they did against Bournemouth, with Sterling playing behind Bony and De Bruyne on the left. As for Sevilla, Llorente only makes the bench, after his recent struggles with injury, where he is joined by none other than the one and only José Antonio Reyes, who played at the weekend against Seville but does not start this evening. The same applies for N’Zonzi. The duo are replaced by Konoplyanka and Banega. Those teams in full then are as follows:
Manchester City: Hart; Zabaleta, Otamendi, Mangala, Sagna; Touré, Fernandinho; Navas, De Bruyne, Sterling; Bony. Subs: Caballero, Kolarov, Kompany, Demichelis, Fernando, Glendon, Barker
Sevilla: Rico; Coke, Rami, Kolodziejczak, Trémoulinas; Iborra, Krychowiak; Vitolo, Banega, Konoplyanka; Gameiro. Subs: Soria, Krohn-Dehli, Reyes, N’Zonzi, Andreolli, Llorente, Mariano Ferreira.
Referee: Bas Nijhuis
And here are the teams in picture format, in case you are into that sort of thing:
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Good evening
It wasn’t really Marty’s fault. How was he to know that Doc Brown had set all those clocks exactly twenty-five minutes slow? OK, you could argue that he probably should’ve called into the Doc’s gaff in Riverside Drive after the school day was done but he was worried about his friend. He hadn’t seen him all week. Anyway, late Marty was but he did his best to try get to Hill Valley High School on time and avoid his fourth tardy slip in a row. No such luck, even with the help of Jennifer Parker. Old man Strickland caught them coming in another way. After a nickle’s worth of advice, Strickland speaks on Marty’s ambitions to have his band – the Pinheads – play at the school dance. “Why even bother McFly? You haven’t got a chance. You’re too much like your own man. No McFly ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley.” Marty and Strickland are close enough to rub noses without much effort but instead Marty looks him dead in the eye and says: “Yeah, well history is gonna change.”
History is going to change. That should be Manchester City’s mantra for the Champions League this season. Over the last four seasons, they have failed to make it out of the group stages twice and failed to make it past the round of 16 twice. OK, you have a point, those round of 16 matches did come against Barcelona, but for a club of this wealth, of this wealth of experience and of this wealth of talent, that record is bordering of the shameful. The idea that history could change for the club took a swift kick to the goolies on the opening evening of the competition. Despite playing at home, despite playing a Juventus side that had not won in the league all season and despite taking the lead with just over half an hour to go, they still contrived to snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory. That sound you could hear at the end of the game was every City fan across the world slapping their foreheads.
For long stretches of the game in Germany against Borussia Mönchengladbach, it did not seem like a change was going to come. Joe Hart apart, City were poor against a poor side that had lost their opening five fixtures of the season and had seen their manager, Lucien Favre, resign. “We always take the scenic route in Europe,” said Hart afterwards and were it not for Sergio Agüero keeping his cool late on from the penalty spot, City might well have found themselves en route to the Europa League. A draw at Borussia Park would have left them joint bottom, two points adrift of this evening’s enemies, Sevilla, and with their prospects looking as glum as a kid who wanted a My Little Pony Equestria Girls Canterlot High School Playset for their birthday but instead got a remote-controlled monster truck. And we all know how that feels, right?
So is history going to change tonight? “We are just thinking about this game, not the past,” says Manuel Pellegrini but are City going to start dismantling Champions League sides with the speed and skill and strength that they exhibit on such a regular basis in the Premier League? It’s hard to know. They are without Sergio Agüero and without David Silva but in the win over Bournemouth Kevin De Bruyne showed Chelsea (once again) what a ridiculous mistake it was to let him go; Raheem Sterling showed that he has a finishing touch; and Wilfried Bony has shown that he has not forgotten how to play up front. They may also be without Vincent Kompany. That should be a worry for City fans. In the first five games of the season when he played, City kept their sheets clean every time; in the last six games when he hasn’t played, they have conceded every time. That can’t be a coincidence, right? Right!
City could he helped by Sevilla’s poor form this season. After eight games, they have just nine points and currently reside in 13th spot in the La Liga table. Six of those nine points have come from two wins, one over Rayo Vallecano and one over Barcelona. That’s right, the same Barcelona that City could not get past. Admittedly, the Catalan club were without Leo Messi and Andrés Iniesta for that game but it is still an impressive achievement. And least we forget, this is also a side with some serious European pedigree who had no such troubles against Mönchengladbach and who are, of course, the current holders of the Europa League. ‘Tis fair to say they won’t be rolling over for City and that this should be an intriguing encounter.
Ninety(ish) minutes of football, Back to the Future chat – unless, of course, you’ve had enough of it today – and team news is on its way. Are you excited? You darn well should me.
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