Sports

Brits crash out as Braga, PSV march on in Europa League

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-19 07:52

Porto's Sapunaru (left) battles for the ball with CSKA Moscow's Vagner Love during their Europa League last-16, second-leg match at Dragao Stadium in Porto on Thursday. Miguel Vidal / Reuters

PARIS - Big-spending English giants Manchester City, Liverpool and Rangers crashed out of the last 16 of the Europa League on Thursday to end Britain's interest in the competition.

Roberto Mancini's City side, bank-rolled from Abu Dhabi by Sheikh Mansour's 500 million pounds ($806.7 million) investment, beat Dynamo Kiev 1-0 at Eastlands but bowed out 2-1 on aggregate.

At Anfield, a lackluster Liverpool eked out a goalless draw with Sporting Braga to put the plucky Portuguese side through 1-0 on aggregate.

Scottish giant Rangers, a finalist of the then UEFA Cup in 2008, had been in a strong position after coming away from its first leg at PSV Eindhoven with a scoreless stalemate.

But a 13th minute goal from Jermain Lens meant it was the Dutch visitors rather than Rangers whose name went into Friday's draw.

Joining PSV, Dynamo and Braga in the last eight were Benfica, FC Twente, Spartak Moscow, FC Porto, Villarreal.

Manchester City was cut to 10 men in the 37th minute after Italian Mario Balotelli was shown a straight red for a dreadful, high one-footed lunge at Goran Popov in a bad-tempered clash that also saw seven yellow cards brandished.

But the home side rebounded immediately after Balotelli's rash challenge through Aleksandar Kolarov, the Serb scoring from an indirect freekick through a congested area.

Mancini acknowledged it was a "disappointing result".

"We deserved another goal tonight. We played a fantastic game with only 10 players," Mancini said.

"I didn't see the foul properly but I am very disappointed because in a game like this it is very difficult if you pick up a red card, and you can pick up a red card for doing something stupid.

"The problem for Mario is that he thinks he could be a fantastic player. But when he does something stupid like that, it is difficult for me, difficult for him and difficult for the team."

City defender Vincent Kompany said: "As soon as we went down to 10 men it became a very difficult game. We gave up a lot of energy in this game. I thought we played well."

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 03/19/2011 page16)