Shevchenko rolls back years to leave City sicker

MANCHESTER CITY will need to display all their attacking strength next week if they are to remain in the Europa League.

They are chasing a two-goal deficit after former Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko and Oleh Gusev handed Kiev a useful advantage last night.

To complete a frustrating night for manager Roberto Mancini, Mario Balotelli came off in the second half with the Italian striker claiming to be unwell.

“We played a good game. I think we did two mistakes for the goals, two big mistakes. We can’t concede mistakes like this,” lamented Roberto Mancini.

“Kiev are a good team. I think the right result would be 2-1 maybe, but I think we should pay attention in defensive areas because two stupid goals — you can’t concede goals like these. There’s frustration because we had control of the game. They played on the counter attack.”

After a bright start, City showed nothing like the kind of form that marked them down as tournament favourites. They knew it would be a tough test in freezing conditions as Dynamo went into the match having lost only one of their past 16 games.

With Carlos Tevez on the bench Gareth Barry skippered the side.

David Silva threaded the ball through to Micah Richards in the 11th minute only for goalkeeper Olexandr Shovkovskly to block his path.

Dynamo took the lead with their first attempt on goal in the 24th minute when Shevchenko poked home following a cross from Andriy Yarmolenko. Shevchenko’s goal rocked City, with the striker showing that at 34 he has not lost his scoring instincts.

The home side were growing in confidence and this was a testing spell for City with Gusev dragging a shot wide on the stroke of half time.

Balotelli was late arriving for the second half and appeared to be in some distress. He was clutching his face with reports suggesting he was unwell.

Mancini, however, was in no hurry to take him off and Balotelli suffered further misery in the 54th minute, booked for a foul on Ayila Yussuf.

Three minutes later Balotelli headed for the dressing room and was replaced by Tevez.

City almost drew level in the 59th minute when Barry laid the ball back to Yaya Toure on the edge of the area. He struck his shot sweetly but it was turned around the post.

City’s troubles increased in the 77th minute when Dynamo forged 2-0 ahead after poor defending. Richards failed to deal with a flick on from Artem Milevskiy and Gusev smashed a volley home from eight yards.

Tevez gave City dynamism but they were unable to pull a goal back and there is much work to be done if their European campaign is to continue.

Europa League results: Bayer Leverkusen 2 Villarreal 3, CSKA Moscow 0 Porto 1, PSV Eindhoven 0 Rangers 0, Ajax 0 Spartak Moscow 1, Benfica 2 PSG 1, Dynamo Kiev 2 Manchester City 0, FC Twente 3 Zenit St Petersburg 0.

SPL result: Dundee Utd 2 Hamilton 1.

DYNAMO KIEV: Shovkovskiy, Danilo Silva, Khacheridi, Yussuf, Popov, Gusev, Vukojevic, Eremenko, Yarmolenko, Shevchenko (Ninkovic 88), Milevskiy.

MAN CITY: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Zabaleta, Toure Yaya, Barry, Kolarov (Wright-Phillips 82), Balotelli (Tevez 57), Dzeko, Silva.

Referee: Florian Meyer (Germany).