City failed marking test, says Mancini

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini rued his team’s defensive effort after their 2-0 loss at Dynamo Kiev in their Europa League first leg.

City face an uphill battle in the round-of-16 return leg after Andriy Shevchenko and Oleg Gusev scored either side of half-time to give the Ukranians a valuable advantage.

Mancini lamented two defensive mistakes that cost City and felt they could have been returning to England with at least an away goal.

“We played a good game but made two big mistakes for the two goals,” he told the BBC.

“We need to pay attention in the defensive phase because they were two stupid goals.”

“Kiev are a good team. The right result might have been 2-1.”

Poor making allowed Shevchenko to poke home the opener in the 25th minute before the former Chelsea forward turned provider for the second as Gusev controlled his deflected cross and volleyed into the roof of the net.

Mancini was unhappy with the marking for both goals and felt there had to be improvement if his team is to overturn the deficit.

“When you play in the Europa League, you can’t concede goals like this,” he said.

“We were four or five metres from the opponent. I think that we had some problems and I hope that it can improve with the strikers for the return match.”

“If the strikers improve and the defenders pay attention maybe we have a chance to go through.”

Striker Mario Balotelli was forced to come off early in the second half after suffering from what was believed to be an allergic reaction to the grass in Kiev.

“He wanted to play in the second half but he had this problem 10 seconds before coming out,” Mancini said.

“I came out a minute before the players and I didn’t see Mario. He then said he could play but his face was swollen.”