Berlin - Arabstoday
Carlos Tevez refuses to come on as second-half sub as English side are unable to cope with the four-time Champions League winners and are made to look toothless in Bavaria.Welcome to the Champions League, Manchester City. Roberto Mancini\'s side are learning the hard way that Europe\'s elite club competition is a whole new level after a double from Mario Gomez gave Bayern Munich the win at the Allianz Arena. The German striker scored twice within the last eight minutes of the first half to stun City who had competed in the early stages of a contest which Jupp Heynckes\'s side controlled once they were in front. Four-time European champions, Bayern had won their previous nine games in a row conceding zero goals in the process and it showed as the English FA Cup winners had no real answer to the questions being asked of them. Mancini’s side had the better of the early exchanges and within three minutes City could have been awarded a penalty after a clumsy challenge from former City defender Jerome Boateng felled David Silva close to the byline. The Hungarian officials were not moved, however, and the Spaniard didn’t reinforce the claim with much protestations.City continued to edge the even battle when a run from Micah Richards set up Edin Dzeko, whose recent form deserted him as his shot was straight at Manuel Neuer between the Bayern posts.Bayern were now improving by the minute and Bastian Schweinsteiger could have opened the scoring on two occasions, the first was a result of nifty work with Ribery which ended unluckily and the second was a simply horrendous miss. Thomas Muller’s efforts allowed him to stroke the ball to Schweinsteiger who, from seven yards, spooned it. Within 60 seconds, Bayern finally opened the scoring. Ribery’s long-range shot was well saved by Joe Hart only to see Muller pounce on the rebound, but Hart was up to the challenge and an excellent reflex save denied Muller. But that’s where Hart’s luck ran out. Gomez smashed the ball home on the second rebound and Bayern took a deserved lead after controlling the latter part of the half.With Hart screaming at his errant defence, he was under the cosh almost immediately when more poor City defending allowed Gomez to drift to the near post from a Muller free-kick and net the second goal of the game. Daniel Van Buyten\'s header was saved by Hart low at his corner, but Gomez pounced to bundle the ball home.Once the second half begun it appeared that City had run out of ideas. The team which put five past Tottenham and were still unbeaten in domestic football were not in attendance and some interesting substitutions from Mancini further reduced the chances of a comeback. After 55 minutes the effective Edin Dzeko was replaced by Nigel de Jong and the Bosnian was furious to be removed from action. He made sure that his manager was aware of this, as dissension was rife on the City bench, with Carlos Tevez joining in the arguments. It later emerged that the Argentine striker had refused to enter the fray, an action that further exacerbated a horrendous evening for the English club.In the end City were comprehensively beaten, and slip to third in Group A, still looking for their first win in the competition. Bayern, meanwhile, have laid a marker as one of the favourites to land this season\'s Champions League crown.