Joe Hart, the
Manchester City and England goalkeeper, pulls off a save in the 1-1 draw
with Borussia Dortmund. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Bongarts/Getty
Images
Roberto Mancini hailed an "incredible" performance from
Joe Hart after the England goalkeeper produced a string of exceptional saves to keep
Manchester City's
Champions League hopes alive on a night when the Italian conceded his side were fortunate to pick up a point against an excellent
Borussia Dortmund team.
Mario
Balotelli's late penalty, awarded harshly after Neven Subotic was
penalised for handling Sergio Agüero's close-range shot,
earned City a 1-1 draw that Mancini believes could be vital come the end of the group.
Yet
it was Hart, rather than the Italy striker, who was hailed as City's
saviour, after the 25-year-old made eight superb saves in a pulsating
game that had chances from the first minute to the last. Hart denied
Mario Götze on three occasions in the first half alone and, at times, it
felt as though he was single-handedly keeping Dortmund at bay. He was
so impressive that there was even acclaim from Old Trafford. "Have to
say Joe Hart has been incredible. For me best keeper in the world,"
tweeted Wayne Rooney.
Mancini had expressed his frustration with
Hart less than a fortnight ago, after the goalkeeper criticised his
team-mates for allowing a 2-1 lead to slip over Real Madrid. On this
occasion, however, there was only praise from Mancini, who recognised
that he was indebted to Hart for preventing Dortmund from being out of
sight by the time Balotelli scored in the 90th minute to cancel out
Marco Reus's opener. "Joe Hart is incredible because he saved everything
and we should say thank you to him," Mancini said. "He did a fantastic
performance. I don't know if it's the best performance in football
history but he did very well."
Hart admitted that he could not
recall being so busy in goal before. "It could have been 10-all tonight.
I thought their keeper was fantastic," he said, acknowledging the
contribution that Roman Weidenfeller made in the first half, when the
Dortmund keeper made a hat-trick of saves to thwart Agüero. "Off the top
of my head, I can't remember making as many saves before. I thought
Dortmund were different class tonight. It took a good defensive effort
by us to keep it to just one. I hope this result is important and that
it is not a waste of effort."
It remains to be seen whether that
will be the case, although City will clearly have to play much better if
they are to have a chance of reaching the knockout phase and avoid a
repeat of last year's elimination at the group stage. Third in Group D
with one point from two games, they have not kept a clean sheet since
the penultimate game of last season and there was little doubt that
Dortmund were going to extend that record on an evening when City never
got the balance right between attack and defence.
"The Champions
League is totally different from every championship," Mancini said.
"When you play, you play against the best players, so when you have a
chance you have to score. If you don't score, and after you concede,
like we conceded this evening, it's difficult that we can win.
"First
half we had three or four incredible chances and I don't know why we
didn't score but this can happen. The problem was our performance. This
is the problem. In the Champions League we can't play with all players
that attack. We need to defend with all players. If you don't defend, if
you don't run like Borussia Dortmund did this evening, it's difficult."
City
lost Javi García to a thigh strain in the first half and it seems
certain that the midfielder will miss Saturday's league game at home to
Sunderland. Yaya Touré also appeared to be struggling and was well off
the pace in the second half in particular, although Mancini claimed
there was nothing wrong with the Ivorian's fitness. "Yaya didn't play
well. He is not injured. But it was not only Yaya; all the team played a
poor game. We didn't play well. We didn't deserve to take this point,
but in the end it could be important. Borussia Dortmund played better
than us and at this moment they are a better side."
