Manchester City's defender, Vincent Kompany, admits that his team was surprised by Dynamo Kyiv’s performance
Manchester City centre-half, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Vincent-Kompany-c36184, has admitted that the Citizens were completely surprised by Dynamo Kyiv’s impressive performance in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League knock-out round.
He said, “They caught us by surprise last week. We knew they were a good team and we knew their strengths and weaknesses, but it was an away game in Ukraine, the conditions are very different and there was a lot of travelling. You have to adapt to that for
a start. When you go onto the pitch, you don't know exactly how it is going to be. But if nothing else, it will give everyone a good game to watch tomorrow because there will be plenty of stuff happening, I am sure of it”.
Manchester City became favourites to win Europa League after finishing at the top of the ‘Group of Death’ which included the likes of Italian giants, Juventus, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lech-Poznan-c39779 and Salzburg.
However, the Manchester outfit endured a shocking two-nil defeat against Dynamo Kyiv in the first leg in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ukraine-c3032
Kompany hailed the impact of Dynamo Kyiv's skipper, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andriy-Shevchenko-c6014, who scored the opener in the first leg – taking his European goal tally to a total of 67 and is only 2 goals short of levelling the record of highest European goalscorer, Rual.
The Belgian defender is fully aware of Shevchenko’s threat and has claimed that he would need to keep the former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 and Milan forward quiet in order to win the tie.
Kompany said, “Shevchenko seemed to be leading by example. He was not just captain because of what he achieved in the past; he was one of the best players in their team”.
Ole Gusev doubled Kyiv’s lead with an exceptional volley from inside the penalty after the poor clearance from Kompany.
Even though Manchester City dominated the play but the Ukrainians easily managed to see off the pressure from the English side.
Despite boasting one of the best attacks in Europe as it included the likes of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mario-Balotelli-c23937, Manchester City failed to find a breakthrough and the home side managed to keep a crucial clean-sheet.
Manchester City will play host to Dynamo Kyiv on Thursday night in the return leg at Eastlands and Kompany urges his team to be at their best in order to earn a qualification for the quarter-final of Europa League.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roberto-c31294 Mancini’s men would now have to score three times, however, a goal for Dynamo Kyiv would certainly kill off the fixture for Manchester City.
If Manchester City manages to get through to the next round, it will become the first time in over 30 years that the Citizens got into the last-8 of European Cup.
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