Europa League preview: Manchester City v FC Timişoara (agg: 1-0)
What do you buy a man who can afford everything? Well, something priceless of course.
The look on Sheikh Mansour’s face as he watched Manchester City – the club he has so transformed over the past two years – sweep aside Liverpool on Monday night said it all. The cheers from the City fans when they saw him on the big screen probably said it better, but this is now his club, and no amount of ivory backscratchers or platinum watches can replace that. If his joy at watching them for the first time was easy to see, then seeing them win was better.
Many claimed that Monday was City’s best display since they were taken over by their moneybags owner – defender Vincent Kompany disagreed – but it was undoubtedly a statement of intent at the start of the new campaign, and a perfectly timed one for Roberto Mancini given who was in attendance. Now attention switches to the Europe.
Mario Balotelli has only played 33 minutes for Manchester City so far, but they were certainly eventful.
After coming on for Gareth Barry in the first leg of this tie in Romania, Balotelli first picked up a booking, then found the top corner of the net for the only goal of the game, then limped off.
That injury keeps him out of this tie too, but it’s not as if Mancini is short of options, despite the fact that James Milner is ineligible for this one after signing too late.
With the likes of David Silva, Patrick Vieira, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Emmanuel Adebayor all left on the bench on Monday, there is plenty of scope for the Italian to rotate his squad, and that’s without mentioning the goalkeeping challenge between Joe Hart and Shay Given. The manager is wary though.
“I must pay attention,” he said, “because it could still be a difficult game, but I'll probably make three or four changes because it's impossible to play with the same players every three days,”
Every game matters for City’s players though – if they are left out who knows when they can get back in again? – and so no-one wants to miss a chance to impress the boss, which even the most unlikely of figures can do.
“I have been able to see Jô close-up in the last two months and what I have seen makes me think he's a good player," said Mancini. “I can also remember seeing him play for CSKA Moscow a few years ago when I was with Internazionale and he's a good striker. We want to keep him.”
Amid the huge spending going on at City, surely no-one believed that they’d ever hear their manager saying that. After an £18million arrival from Russia in the summer of 2008, the extremely underwhelming Jô was shipped out on loan to Everton after just nine Premier League games and one goal for the Eastlands outfit.
He hardly sparkled on Merseyside either, but David Moyes did see enough to bring him back for the 2009/10 campaign, only for that spell to be cut short following a trip back to Brazil without permission. Fifteen games and three goals on loan at Galatasaray bring us up to this summer, when remarkably the written-off forward appears to have impressed his boss when given a second, or perhaps even third or fourth, chance to impress.
He could start tonight on an evening that promises to keep the feel-good factor flowing through Eastlands.
City will win, Jô might even score, and while Sheikh Mansour won’t be in attendance this time, the entertainment should still be just as rich.
Prediction: Manchester City 4 FC Timişoara 0
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