Champions League review:Arsenal relinquished a 2-0 lead and Manchester City recovered from a couple of goals down but it was the latter who were left perilously close to exiting the Champions League this evening.The Premier League champions have only two points from four games and find themselves six adrift Group D leaders Borussia Dortmund.
The Germans were themselves pegged back to draw 2-2 with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.
Ajax lie on four points, having taken a point away from the Etihad. Their captain Siem De Jong scored in the 10th and 17th minute to rock City back on their heels but Yaya Toure’s close range volley with his back to goal pulled one back before the break and Sergio Aguero levelled matters in the second half with a tidy finish.
City were then on the wrong end of a poor offside decision after Aleksandr Kolarov was flagged before crossing for Aguero to finish with minutes left. City were angered further by the decision not to award Mario Balotelli a penalty at the death when he appeared to be hauled down in the box by an Ajax defender.
The result leaves City needing a win at home to Real Madrid and away to Dortmund to have any chance of making hte knockout stages.
“It’s very important to defend as a team when corners come in and we’ve probably let ourselves down on those two occasions," City captain vincent Kompany told ITV 1. “Those two goals were really not good. We’ll look back at the game, try to see what went wrong, and try to improve.
“It’s not the case that we’re not good enough for the Champions League but it’s a matter of time. It’s unfortunate that we’re letting those chances go at the moment.”
Kompany dismissed talk of a penalty claim, adding: “We didn’t do enough to win tonight and we have to learn from this and take it into the next game.”
Group pacesetters Dortmundtook the lead in Madridthrough Marco Reus's cracking volley but a Pepe header restored parity for the homeside. A neat finish from Mario Gotze pushed the visitors back into the lead before a Mesut Ozil free-kick nicked a point for Real to leave them one behind the German champions.
Schalke 04remain top of Group B after coming from two down against the Gunners, for whom a point was good enough to see them stay second, one ahead of Olympiakos, the Greeks having scored two late goals to beat Montpellier3-1.
Theo Walcott pounced in the 18th minute after Olivier Giroud fluffed his effort when through on goal, but the Frenchman made amends eight minutes later when heading home Lukas Podolski’s cross.
The homeside struck back just before the break when Klaas Jan Huntelaar tucked a neat left-footed finish into the bottom corner and the sides were level when Jefferson Farfan found the net with 23 minutes remaining.
Walcott might have nicked it at the death but the forward appeared to get the ball stuck under his feet when bearing down on goal.
Despite letting a two-goal lead slip, Arsene Wenger told Sky Sports 2: “With all the stick we got after Saturday’s game, it was important to show a good response and I think we did that. It was a difficult game — a good one as well, both teams played very well.
“It was unfortunate that we conceded that goal before half-time, and in the last minute we had the chance for 3-2, but overall I think a draw was fair. At 2-0 you have not won the game in the Champions League. German teams have physical quality and technical quality and they never give up, so I never felt the game was over.”
