Ajax 3 Man City 1: City's comedy of errors renders them a laughing stock once more

The comedy club is open for business again. Those who follow Manchester City thought they had left such days behind. Heading into work, prepared for the worst, the gags, the punchlines, the old school sneers.
They will be taking plenty on Thursday morning, though. In a throwback to the wilderness years, City's ambitions were exposed so ruthlessly and thoroughly here that it was almost possible to hear the sniggers from the red half of Manchester  filtering across the North Sea.
By way of retort, it could be argued that Manchester United, indeed no English team, would fare too well in the rarefied atmosphere of Champions League Group D.

The floodgates are open: Christian Eriksen delights in scoring the third Ajax goal

Double up: Niklas Moisander heads in Ajax's second goal

Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax and City: the champions of Spain, Germany, Holland and  England congregated. And this would be true. But, even so, nobody was expecting City to capitulate quite like this.
It is pointless doing the mathematics over whether they will now have to defeat Madrid at home or Dortmund away to qualify, because they must overcome Ajax first. On this evidence, it could be that City are as good as done with two matches to spare; it could be that they are the rabbits here, the equivalent of the minor country minnows allowed in by Michel  Platini's format change.
Yet many of those, the products of Belarus or Cyprus, or previously obscure names like Nordsjaelland from Denmark, have been punching above their weight.
City, by contrast, could drop from heavy to bantam and still barely land a blow. The risk of a new 4-2-1-3 system notwithstanding, they were outplayed here, just as they were by Real away and Dortmund at home, using more familiar tactics.
Far from improving in the Champions League, City have looked increasingly inept second time around. Given the ambition at the club, and the planned next stage in their development, this could be a watershed match for some in Mancini's squad, not least England centre half Joleon Lescott.
It was hard to imagine what zone Lescott thought he was marking for Ajax's crucial second goal on Wednesday night. The Demilitarized Zone, perhaps. The Zone of Alienation, placed around the site of the Chernobyl disaster. Zone, an ancient city in western Thrace, maybe.

Potent: Ajax took Man City to pieces at the back

Roar: Moisander celebrates his important goal

Beaten: Joe Hart watches as Siem De Jong's strike hits the net

Centre half Niklas Moisander ghosts into space and out-jumps Lescott, who seems stumped by the zonal marking system.

Whichever zone it was, it certainly wasn't the one inhabited by Ajax defender Niklas Moisander. A pity, really, as that was the only zone that mattered.
Had Lescott made a better fist of guarding it, the game might not have got away from City so spectacularly in the second half. And he would not have seen his number come up with close to 30 minutes of play remaining.
Mancini can be brutal in his assessments and by 63 minutes he had clearly tired of a performance from Lescott that was inattentive at best, hapless at worst. The deciding factor, Ajax's second goal, came when Moisander ghosted into the zonal area Lescott was supposed to protect to meet a Christian Eriksen corner.
Lescott did contest the header but from an arm's length away, such was his dream-like state. Five minutes later he was history; as were City.
Ajax's third goal put emphatic distance between the teams. This time, the circumstances were  fortunate. Eriksen's shot appeared to take two deflections on its way to goal - the last, and most fatal, off Gael Clichy - leaving Joe Hart with no chance.
Having said that, quite how a player of his talent was allowed to carry the ball so far before shooting is a mystery. City seem to have lost their way as a defensive unit and in this company that is always going to be costly.

Steered home: Samir Nasri opened the scoring for the visitors

And yet City took the lead here and had a little spell soon after when they could have been two, maybe three, up.
It was one of those halves that infuriates the purists, one in which City proved that having the ball is at times an over-rated quality. For more than 20 minutes, the game belonged to Ajax. They moved better, thought better, a blur of neat interchanges and insightful thinking. City laboured in their wake.
And then from their first attack of merit, the visitors scored. James Milner took the ball across field and fed it to Samir Nasri, whose clinical shot gave not a sliver of hope to Ajax goalkeeper Kenneth  Vermeer.
Just 14 minutes later the two players combined again for what should have been City's second of the night, but Nasri made a hash of his first touch and allowed the hosts to recover. Micah  Richards also forced a save from Vermeer. His was a good shot, but it should have been more.

Good work: The French midfielder is congratulated by his colleagues (and below)

Pegged back: De Jong (left) celebrates his equaliser

And so they were made to pay. Shortly before half-time, Ajax  levelled as City slept. Ricardo van  Rhijn's cross from the right was low and difficult but City's defence was sluggish and unaware.
Siem de Jong got in front of Milner but only because the midfielder woke up to the danger quicker than those around him. All appeared to be caught off guard, allowing de Jong to finish smartly across his body.
It was a well-taken goal, but deeply unimpressive from City. A side that were so resolute in defence for much of last season has become inexplicably sloppy.

Leap: Micah Richards strains to head the ball

Blocked off: Nasri is kept away from the ball

Vincent Kompany is certainly not the rock of a year ago, and Lescott, as mentioned earlier, is an accident-in-waiting. A horribly underhit pass could have let Ajax in early on, had Kompany not moved fast to snuff out the threat.
Those who condemn City's entry into the elite will be much amused.
Yet one interesting aside: early in the match, Ajax supporters unfurled two banners. The first read 'Against modern football', the second was a broad caricature of an Arab holding out a bag of cash, with a red line through the image.

Good start: Nasri sees his strike fly in

Concerns: Roberto Mancini will need to solve the problem of his leaky defence

It was clearly a protest against the influence of new wealth; Ajax preferring the old ways, football grown from the roots up (and kept as a preserve of a wealthy elite).
Yet if a Jew had been depicted in such crude cartoon satire, or a black man, there would have been uproar. Arabs, it would seem, are fair game.
On another night marked by UEFA's pledge to Unite Against Racism, and amid the undoubted beauty of Ajax's display, you may pause to consider what constitutes dissent and what bigotry.

Benched: Mario Balotelli was not selected to start

Ready to go: The Amsterdam ArenA before kick-off*****

Napoli 3 Chelsea 1: Andre Villa Boas on the brink

When this breathless European encounter ended, the Napoli supporters might have been addressing Andre Villas-Boas with the anthem they sing to mark victory at the Stadio San Paolo.
Il Soldato Innamorato tells the tragic story of a soldier writing his last letter home and there was a sense here that Chelsea’s manager may have done something rather similar within the context of his career.
The team sheet he submitted read to some like a professional suicide note and while that might sound a touch melodramatic the first 11 names that appeared below ‘Chelsea FC’ could yet amount to a Portuguese P45.

Predator: Napoli striker Edinson Cavani celebrates after scoring his team's second goal

In the firing line: Andre Villa Boas faces a huge fight to save his job after another poor performance

As a Champions League tie this is far from over. Napoli have a commanding lead but not an insurmountable one given the fact that Juan Mata scored a precious away goal before the combined excellence of Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani produced a three-goal response for the stylish Italians.

The question now, however, is whether Villas-Boas will be around to see its conclusion three weeks from now. Amid the chaos that enveloped Chelsea, both before and during this utterly absorbing contest, it felt like his time might be up.

There was the abject nature of Chelsea’s defending and the absence of a plan designed to stop Napoli doing to them what they did to Manchester City. As Petr Cech said, if the intention was to prevent them hitting Chelsea on the counter they failed fairly miserably.

But the problems for Villas-Boas extended beyond the perimeter of the football pitch and into the heart of the dressing room, an apparent split in the ranks seeing a young manager and some of his more senior players divided.

Equaliser: Ezequiel Lavezzi (second left) shoots past the tackle from Gary Cahill to level the scores

Handball? Cavani (right) nips in ahead of Branislav Ivanovic (centre) to put Napoli ahead

Salt in the wounds: Lavezzi beats Petr Cech to the ball to slot home Napoli's third goal of the night

The day started badly with the news that John Terry would not be restoring some much-needed organisation and solidity to Chelsea’s fragile defence, his knee problem demanding that he goes for surgery today. Without Terry the team suffered, David Luiz and Gary Cahill proving themselves one of the more inept central defensive pairings we have seen in this competition.

But life for Villas-Boas is understood to have become even more uncomfortable when he decided to omit Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole from the starting line-up as well. Particularly when Lampard, it is said, responded to the news by communicating his disappointment directly to his manager.
Now, Villas-Boas is entitled to do as much if he feels those players are no longer with him and some would call it a courageous stance.

But when it means you start with Jose Bosingwa at left back and a central midfield partnership of Ramires and Raul Meireles you need those players to prove you made the right call.

AVB's gamble: Chelsea left a lot of big names on the bench, including Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard

Even Villas-Boas must have suspected he could be writing his own resignation letter when he submitted the team sheet. But he no doubt felt that if he was going to go down fighting, he would at least do so with players he felt were on his side.

In the end, they just weren’t up to the job inside this pulsating concrete bowl. Branislav Ivanovic was every bit as awful as Cahill and Luiz and although Bosingwa went off injured after only a few minutes, an unfit Cole also struggled.

Would Lampard have done any better than Meireles and Ramires? I’m not so sure when a once great player, at 33, is not quite the force he was. But Michael Essien would have been useful given the need for extra security in front of the back four, as would John Mikel Obi, and the decision to leave them on the bench felt like the bigger mistake. It was too ambitious a team he sent out against Napoli. Too clever by half.

All downhill from here: Chelsea midfielder Juan Mata pounces on a mistake to open the scoring

Short-lived joy: Mata celebrates after giving Chelsea the lead in southern Italy

From the moment this last-16 clash began Chelsea looked vulnerable, Cech making fine saves to deny first Cavani and then Christian Maggio.

The cavalier approach of a side that is more Spanish than Italian in its style does give Chelsea hope. They leave themselves vulnerable to the counter-attack and last night the marvellous Mata made them pay with his 27th-minute opener.

When Paolo Cannavaro failed to clear a Daniel Sturridge cross, inadvertently diverting the ball into the path of Mata, the visitors were suddenly ahead thanks to the simplest of side-footed finishes from the Spaniard.

Feeling Blue: Didier Drogba (left) and Gary Cahill (centre) react after Lavezzi hits the target

Roar: Lavezzi and Cavani celebrate during the Italian side's fine victory at the Stadio San Paolo

Luiz went close to doubling Chelsea’s lead when he met a Mata corner with a header that flew over the crossbar. It was one of a number of examples of Chelsea’s profligacy.

But within 11 minutes of Mata’s goal Lavezzi had levelled, the Argentine gliding past Meireles all too easily before unleashing a shot that squeezed between Cech and his left-hand post. That Meireles then got himself booked, and so ruled himself out of the second leg, would not have endeared him to his manager either.

But matters would only get worse for Chelsea, with another example of truly abject defending costing them again just before the break.

Assistance required: Didier Drogba has some help from Chelsea's medical team on a night which went from bad to worse for the Blues

Cavani’s was a dreadful goal to concede, from the failure to close down Gokhan Inler before he crossed to the total loss of concentration Ivanovic was guilty of in allowing Cavani to shoulder the ball home at the far post.

At 2-1, Villas-Boas might have argued his side were still in this tie. But when that Chelsea defence contrived to concede a second goal from Lavezzi in the 64th minute, the crisis deepened considerably.

Luiz was an embarrassment, first failing to respond to the threat posed by Hugo Campagnaro’s ball forward and then allowing Cavani to speed past him as a consequence. Cech reacted by rushing off his line but was quickly left stranded by a delivery from Cavani that Lavezzi converted with ease.

Had it not been for a goal-line clearance from Cole, Maggio would have scored a fourth for Napoli.
But that will offer little comfort to Villas-Boas. He simply waits now on the whim of Abramovich.

At Last Carlos Tevez Apologizes to Manchester City

Carlos Tevez has finally backed down in his five-month row with Manchester City and apologised for his behaviour.
After a three-hour meeting with his representatives and City’s football administrator Brian  Marwood on Tuesday night, Tevez finally agreed to release a statement at 9.30pm.
As Sportsmail revealed last week, the former City captain has also decided to drop his appeal to the Barclays Premier League against the £1.8million fine and gross misconduct charge he was hit with by the club in the New Year.

Crunch talks: Carlos Tevez has issued an apology after a two-hour meeting with senior Manchester City officials

City coach Roberto Mancini was not in Tuesday's meeting but is understood to be happy with the latest developments - signed off by the club’s owners in Abu Dhabi - and will now be left to decide if and when Tevez is re-integrated into his first team squad.

Tevez's statement said: 'I wish to apologise sincerely and unreservedly to everybody I have let down and to whom my actions over the last few months have caused offence. My wish is to concentrate on playing football for Manchester City Football Club.'

Tevez was told on his return from his unauthorised three-month absence from City last week that he would need to apologise privately and publicly to Mancini if he was to have any chance of playing for the club again.
City also released a statement, which read: 'Carlos Tevez has today apologised to all concerned for his recent conduct. Carlos returned to the football club last Tuesday, following a three-month absence from duties, without permission.

Touchdown: Tevez was mobbed when he arrived back at Manchester airport on February 14

'Carlos has also withdrawn his appeal against the club's finding of gross misconduct which was due to be heard by a Premier League panel in the coming days. He has since begun a training programme designed to return him to optimum fitness.'

Although Tuesday night's statement doesn’t mention his coach by name, Mancini has told club officials he is satisfied. The two men - yet to meet since Tevez’s return last week - are expected to sit down together in the coming days.
Mancini is open-minded about playing the South American again but resentment between the two sides still lingers and it seems City would need to suffer a crisis of form or fitness for Tevez to be considered for a game.

After enduring an up and down relationship with his coach last season, things came to a head for Tevez last September with a disagreement on the bench during a Champions League game at Bayern Munich.

After being banished to train on his own in November, Tevez left for South America without permission and only returned at the start of this month after proposed moves to the two Milan clubs collapsed.

Getting up to speed: Tevez has been training at the club since his return

Samir Nasri might be having to make do with the Europa League as a Manchester City player, but he has no regrets over his decision to leave Arsenal in a £24m move last summer.
Arsenal’s imminent exit from the Champions League at the hands of AC Milan - meaning a seventh season without a trophy for the Gunners - only supports Nasri’s conclusion that the attractive  football embodied by Arsene Wenger’s side was never going to guarantee the kind of success he hopes to achieve at the Etihad.

City are top of the Premier League and on course to reach the last 16 of the Europa League as they take a 2-1 lead into today’s second leg at home to holders FC Porto. And the France midfielder pointed to last week’s 2-1 comeback win in Portugal and the 1-0 victory at Aston Villa that preceded it as proof of their ability to ‘win ugly’.

In the swing of things: Tevez has spent more time on the golf course than the football pitch since heading back to Argentina

‘Arsenal play good football but after seven years they don’t win so that’s difficult for them,’ said Nasri. ‘Sometimes it’s good to win ugly. You don’t always have to play good football to win.
We did it against Aston Villa and against Porto as well. Here, we are hungry because we want to win titles.

‘I don’t want Arsenal to fall down. I wanted them to win the FA Cup or something because I have respect for the players there and the manager. I know they’ll find some solution.

‘But I’ve never doubted I made the right choice in coming here. We are top of the league and still on course for the Europa League so I’m really happy. What Arsenal do doesn’t matter, it was just my choice.

Friends again: It remains to be seen if Roberto Mancini includes Tevez in his squad

‘I never asked City to pay £24m,’ added the 24-year-old. ‘It was a lot of money but every transfer now has a lot of money. What you want to do is give something to the team.

‘It’s always tough when you change and go to another team. You have to be involved 100 per cent and I wasn’t. Now I’m starting to settle and you will see a better Samir every week.

‘You have to work when you are not producing what everyone expects from you but I was always confident about my quality. Now I want to show everyone it wasn’t a mistake.’

The first leg of this tie was over-shadowed by allegations that Porto fans aimed racist chants at Mario Balotelli and Yaya Toure.

UEFA have opened disciplinary proceedings against Porto and will deal with the case on March 29.

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Ajax 0 Man Utd 2

Clinical: Ashley Young fires his shot beyond Vurnon Anita and into the Ajax net

For Sir Alex Ferguson, the return of a familiar feeling. After the difficulties of early winter in the Champions League, Ferguson and his Manchester United team departed icy Amsterdam with a victory behind them that was as straightforward as it was necessary.
This game will not be remembered for long. The Europa League is a competition that United should never really be in and modest  opposition didn’t require them to overstretch themselves in the Amsterdam Arena.

Nevertheless, a victory by two goals not only pretty much guarantees United a place in the last 16 but could also have an impact on their chances in the Barclays Premier League.

A week on Sunday, United visit  Norwich City for what could be a testing encounter. A week later they play Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
Before those comes the second leg of this tie and Ferguson will know that he will be able to rest players. Last night, he was true to his word and fielded a strong team. Next week it will not be the same.
Ajax — sixth in their domestic league and still recovering from a boardroom dispute that has overshadowed much of what has happened in Dutch football recently — looked a very limited side.
Playing in front of terrific support and inside a packed stadium, Frank de Boer’s team were unable to threaten United with any consistency. It is hard to imagine them doing so at Old Trafford next week, no matter who  Ferguson fields.

Game over: Javier Hernandez hails his goal

The United manager was candid in his assessment of his team’s efforts. Could do better, was his summation.
‘The first half was  disappointing,’ he said. ‘It was difficult to get any rhythm and speed into the game. The second half we improved, and deserved to win. It’s a good result.’
Ultimately, they won on the back of two very good goals in the second half, both from players — Ashley Young and Javier Hernandez — who have much they would perhaps like to contribute after injury-interrupted seasons.

Up and running: Manchester United got their Europa League campaign off to the perfect start in Amsterdam

Young’s 59th-minute strike came after a spell of United pressure. Another making his comeback from injury, Phil Jones, looked set to open the scoring nine minutes earlier when Young’s clever cross seemed destined for his forehead, only for Jan Vertonghen to deflect the ball away.
Soon after,  Hernandez turned Toby Alderweireld to run clear and was denied by a well-timed block from Ajax keeper Kenneth Vermeer.
For the first time in the evening, United had begun to look really dangerous  and it wasn’t long before they scored.

Having a go: Wayne Rooney tries to make it 3-0 with late, floated effort

High and wide: Toby Alderweireld forces Wayne Rooney to blast a shot off target

Nani, who had a pretty dreadful night on his own return from injury, crossed from the left and when the ball struck Vertonghen it landed in Young’s path. A goal looked inevitable as soon as he cut in on his right side and the shot was driven between Vermeer and a defender and into the centre of the goal.
Ajax looked deflated. For the first hour they had been in the game but from hereon in looked dispirited.
Nani drove over in the 62nd minute and had another shot blocked as he looked set to curl the ball into the far corner.

Dangerman: Michael Carrick tracks Danish sensation Christian Eriksen

Aerial battle: Siem de Jong outjumps the Manchester United rearguard

The second goal came after Antonio Valencia won the ball in midfield to  allow Wayne Rooney and Hernandez to combine, and the Mexican’s shot spun in off the goalkeeper. But the goal came at a cost, as Valencia — only on the pitch for 11 minutes — limped off after helping to set it up. Ferguson confirmed he had injured a hamstring and faces four weeks out.
Perhaps the stand-out moment for Ajax was in the 10th minute when Siem de Jong curled a shot towards David de Gea’s left-hand corner from distance. Given that Rio Ferdinand —  otherwise excellent — ducked, De Gea perhaps didn’t see it until late but the Spaniard made good ground to turn the shot away.

Sent sprawling: Javier Hernandez feels the force of Kenneth Vermeer's challenge

Close attention: Rio Ferdinand fouls Miralem Sulejmani

De Jong headed another chance over the bar and the referee was right to wave away penalty appeals on the stroke of half-time when Miralem Sulejmani fell over Ferdinand’s leg on the edge of the area.
With the scoreline level at the break, it looked as if United had weathered the best Ajax could throw at them. So it proved.

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