Manchester City could not survive this Europa League tie, but they made it an enthralling night. From two goals down they took a 3-2 lead with eight minutes remaining, after Sergio Ag�ero had hooked the ball in for his second goal of the evening. The tie was then level following Sporting's 1-0 win in Lisbon, but the away-goals rule kept the Portuguese club ahead.
The frantic character of the contest was encapsulated in the last few seconds when the City goalkeeper Joe Hart nearly won the tie with a header, only for his opposite number Rui Patr�cio to make a save and his team survived.
This had been a match with both open play and anxiety for City, even before Matias Fern�ndez extended the aggregate lead to 2-0. When, for instance, the Sporting centre-half and captain Anderson Polga moved across sharply to concede a corner the frustrated and idiosyncratic City attacker Mario Balotelli booted the ball into the crowd. There was a keenness to the occasion then with both sides convinced that, with the tie in the balance, the prize of progress to the next round was tantalisingly close.
It led to unseemliness as well when Fern�ndez was booked for diving, although there had been a little contact from David Pizarro. The mood, for all the energy expended, was a tense one. Sporting were indifferent to the atmosphere in this ground and had no inclination to concede territory. For the moment, City's opponents have less cause for apprehension.
There is an edge to City's ambitions that is not of the sort the club would have envisaged a few weeks ago. It now reflects tension and doubt rather than the majestic attacking witnessed earlier in the campaign. Anxiety rather than anticipation currently has supporters on the edge of their seats.
The angst intensified when Sporting extended their lead in the tie with the opener. Balotelli needlessly fouled the former Liverpool full-back Emiliano Ins�a and from an angle on the left Fern�ndez bent the free-kick round Hart and into the far corner in the 33rd minute.
At the close of the first half, there was some booing from the home support. By then, City had fallen further behind. After 40 minutes, a lax team let Marat Izmailov go past Aleksandar Kolarov before the cutting the ball back for Ricky van Wolfswinkel to strike. This evidence confirmed City's deterioration.
The first leg of this tie had been followed by another 1-0 defeat, away to Swansea in the Premier League last Sunday. The strain is not being disguised. An injured Gareth Barry was tetchy when taken off in that defeat by the Welsh club, despite the fact that the back problem was severe enough to prevent him from taking part in this occasion.
It will be a surprise, as well as a significant achievement, if City regain their expansive style and hold on to it for the couple of months required. No matter what these adept players have achieved with other sides, it is a new struggle to reach those heights, while City appear to be a club with a touch of vertigo.
Carlos Tevez, reconciled with the manager Roberto Mancini, needs another week to regain match fitness, but there would be less emphasis on the forward if the remaining attackers and creators were playing consistently to the standard of which they are capable. The anxieties are at least as much of an enemy as opponents such as Sporting.
City's situation in this tie had been reduced to a lamentable state following the first half here, but there was still a need to recover order and pride. Without that the mood would have dipped further still on the domestic front, where Manchester United are ahead by a point.
It said everything about this match that Mancini should replace Adam Johnson with Nigel de Jong for the start of the second half. With City so far behind in the tie, it might have looked perverse to turn to a defensive midfielder, but City needed stability.
If the match was briefly sedate it was principally because Ricardo S� Pinto's side seemed to have executed its plan to perfection already, but Ag�ero made his mark in the 60th minute, finishing deftly after Yaya Tour� had delivered a through ball. By that stage, Sporting had their minds set on seeing out the match stubbornly. They even took off Van Wolfswinkel.
The crowd was warmed by the endeavour of their players to atone for handing this tie in haphazard fashion. There were plenty of incidents in and around the Sporting penalty area. The City fans were making the best of an eventually unsuccessful night while trying to force aside the fear that their team are faltering.
The spirit in the side was to prove great all the same, and Balotelli did his usual impeccable job from the penalty spot in the 75th minute to tie the match at 2-2 after the substitute Renato Neto had brought down Ag�ero. The night had not lacked for incident.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/mar/15/manchester-city-sporting-lisbon-europa-league
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