Pellegrini's punishment

Manchester City are not that much worse than Barcelona, although in the first half of tonight's Champions League clash they appeared so: on two goals by Luis Suarez, the Catalonians were winning 0-2.
Only one person is to blame of the dismal first half performance: Manuel Pellegrini. His 4-4-2 lineup could have been genius, but after the first half appears reckless and ignorant of how Barcelona play. On top of this, Edin Dzeko in attack was a gamble that didn't work on a day when the high balls into the area were rather random, and when Dzeko seemed tired. And that is Pellegrini's second failure: while improving in the second half, his players seemed sloppy and not believing in themselves! How can a coach not motivate his players for such a match!?
Sergio Aguero's splendid goal and Joe Hart's penalty save gave Manchester City some meager hope that they might be able to progress. However, it is hard to believe that Manchester City have any chance whatsoever of progressing in the tournament.
In the meantime, it is getting more and more exciting to see the Messi-Suarez-Neymar Triple Alliance in action for Barcelona!

My apology to Manchester City

I should apologize to Manchester City. After having watched them at their beautiful stadium last weekend, I underestimated them. Before they went into their all-important Champions League match against AS Roma, I did not believe they could do what they needed to do, which was to win in Rome. They were without their superstars: Yaya Toure, Vincent Kompany and most important, the goal-machine Sergio Aguero, who is pretty much the reason they had not been eliminated earlier.
Without these guys, I do not believe that Manchester City has any real super stars, and I have not been impressed by their performances in the CL (including their victory over Bayern Munich! It was all Aguero).
That has now changed.
Manchester City were the best team against an AS Roma that, if anything, disappointed more than they did against Bayern Munich. Without forcing things, Manchester City worked hard to pressure the Italians. Every player delivered, not just the goalscorers Samir Nasri and Pablo Zabaleta, but also Joe Hart, who also did his part with a couple of great saves. It was the best team effort by Manchester City this season.
Congrats to Manchester City. No team will be comfortable playing them, but they have to play as well as they did last night to have hopes of progressing.

Manchester City-Everton

After an all night flight from Monrovia via Brussels I was not too tired to go to watch Manchester City-everton at the absolutely beautiful Etihad stadium in Manchester. The home team won 1-0 on a penalty goal by Yaya Toure. Sergio Aguero got injured and both Joe Hart and Tim Howard had amazing saves.

But for me the best was to experience two great teams in the best league in the world.