Champions League: Manchester City earn vital win at Roma without injured Sergio Aguero
Nasri and team-mates deliver in Stadio Olimpico
Thursday 11 December 2014 00:46, UK
“There was a lot of talk about City being a one-man team after that Sergio Aguero hat-trick and all his heroics over the last few weeks. That tends to get the backs up of players. Nobody wants to hear that; your professional pride is hurt. Maybe there’s an element of that out here tonight. Everybody wants to prove a point that they can do without their star striker. And they have done.”
Sergio Aguero has seemingly single-handedly transformed Manchester City’s fortunes in recent weeks – but as Alan Smith noted on commentary after their 2-0 victory at Roma earned them a place in the knockout phase of the Champions League, there’s more to the Premier League champions than the Argentine striker.
We’ve got resolve, we’ve got character and we’ve got fantastic players.
Aguero’s stuning hat-trick against Bayern Munich in City’s previous Champions League match rescued their European campaign and in turn inspired his team-mates to the best levels they’ve shown this season in emphatic wins over Southampton and Sunderland.
When he crumpled to the floor with a knee injury against Everton on Saturday Night Football, Jamie Redknapp descirbed it as a "huge blow" for the club. With the Premier League’s top scorer ruled out for up to eight weeks, City’s domestic and European campaigns were thrown into doubt.
However, in a hostile Stadio Olimpico Aguero’s team-mates – and in particular Samir Nasri – stood up to be counted.
The Frenchman produced an incredible drive from the edge of the box to put City ahead and then teed up Pablo Zabaleta for the visitors’ second, which, combined with Bayern Munich’s win over CSKA Moscow, sealed the English side’s spot in the next round.
With Yaya Toure also unavailable and the returning David Silva only used as a late substitution, Nasri stepped into his role as City’s creator-in-chief with relish, recording an 87.8 per cent pass completion rate to go with his goal and assist.
“It was important for me to score,” said Nasri after the game. “After my surgery it took a little bit of time for me to come back to my full level. Now I am. Yaya wasn’t there, Kun (Aguero) wasn’t there, it was important for us to show we are a team – and we did it tonight.”
‘Keeper Joe Hart, who produced several fine saves to shut out Roma – and earn City’s first clean sheet in the Champions League this season – was also keen to emphasise the quality running throughout the squad.
Even without Sergio, the team qualified and we played well in Europe.
“We’re a strong unit,” he said. “You don’t win the Premier League easily and we’ve done it twice in three years. We’ve got resolve, we’ve got character and we’ve got fantastic players. Add that all together and we’ve got a chance.”
In the Sky Sports studio, Jamie Carragher praised City for producing a "proper European performance with a lot of big players missing" and credited central midfield duo Fernando and Fernandinho for their hard-working partnership.
Fernandinho made more tackles than anyone else on the field (five) and Fernando completed the most passes by a City player (40).
“Our team does not depend on one player,” Manuel Pellegrini said in the build-up to the Roma clash when asked about Aguero’s injury. City’s performance in the Italian capital supported their manager’s assessment.
