More misery for Man City

Manchester City 3 Kashima Antlers 4

Injury-hit Manchester City struggled against a lively Kashima Antlers in Shanghai today, losing 4-3 to the former Japanese champions in their second and final game of the Shanghai International tournament.

City scored through Antoine Sibierski, Georgios Samaras and Joey Barton but never led as Antlers capitalised on the Premier League side’s defensive frailties.

Manager Stuart Pearce had been concerned with a number of injuries within his squad before the game but Sylvain Distin and Micah Richards were both deemed fit enough to start.

New signing Dietmar Hamann, however, failed to shake off a foot injury picked up in Friday’s 1-0 win over Shanghai Shenhua while neither Richard Dunne nor Sun Jihai were available due to minor injuries. Ben Thatcher was suspended after being sent off in the previous game and, as a result, Pearce named himself on the bench.

The Eastlands side could have done with a dash of Pearce’s trademark tenacity in the opening quarter of the game with the Premier League side often second-best as Kashima’s pace and movement caused problems.

It took just 11 minutes for Antlers to take the lead when the City defence failed to clear Takuya Nozawa’s corner before Daisuke Iwamasa struck from a tight angle after Danny Mills failed to clear.

Mills was again caught out five minutes later when Masaki Fukai stepped inside from the left wing before firing off a shot that Joe Hart blocked.

City finally woke up in the 24th minute when Claudio Reyna caught the Kashima defence cold with a quickly-taken free-kick that released Paul Dickov, but the Scot failed to capitalise as goalkeeper Hitoshi Sogahata blocked the shot with his feet.

Six minutes later, however, City were level when Sibierski powered his header beyond the right hand of Sogahata after Trevor Sinclair’s inch-perfect cross from the left.

Sinclair almost put City in front less than 60 seconds later when he slid in to meet Samaras’ cross only for the ball to fly wide of the target.

But with six minutes left in the half Antlers took the lead again as City once again failed to clear their lines. A curling shot from Yuzo Tashiro from the edge of the area was parried by Hart and Motoyama was first to react, side-footing the ball home from close range.

Ten minutes after the restart City’s struggles continued when Antlers hit on the break after Reyna gave the ball away cheaply and Nozawa fed Masaki Chugo, who set up substitute Marinaldo to score with ease.

There was more bad news for City just a minute later when Reyna was felled by a strong challenge from Kashima’s Brazilian midfielder Fernando and the American midfielder, who picked up an injury to his right ankle, was eventually replaced by Barton.

City reduced the gap in the 59th minute when Samaras’ shot from the edge of the area was miss-read by Sogahata on the bumpy Hongkou Stadium pitch and the Japanese goalkeeper allowed the ball to roll past him in embarrassing fashion.

However, at the other end Hart was to fall victim to the conditions five minutes later as Kashima restored their two-goal cushion when the City keeper flapped at Nozawa’s low shot along the ground.

The second-half scoring continued in the 68th minute when Barton struck with a fine effort from the edge of the area to reduce the deficit to a solitary goal but, try as they might, City were unable to pull level.