Joe Hart was criticised by Gary Neville, a member of England’s coaching staff, for the errors that allowed Bayern Munich to score their first and third goals in their 3-1 defeat of Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
Neville’s assessment could have implications for Hart’s status as the international No1 before the World Cup qualifiers against Montenegro and Poland.
After Hart allowed Franck Ribéry’s seventh-minute long-range shot to go in off a forearm, Neville said: “It’s the power of the shot. He’s got to do better there, Joe Hart, beaten at his near post. It just goes through his hand. It’s not the start Manchester City wanted or the goalkeeper.”
Of Arjen Robben’s goal on 60 minutes, which was again from range and beat Hart on his near side, Neville said: “You have to say Joe Hart’s got to do better again at that near post. That’s twice he’s been beaten there tonight. He’ll be disappointed again.”
Roy Hodgson is bound to be asked at length about his confidence in Hart at Thursday’s media briefing but Manuel Pellegrini refused to criticise the goalkeeper.
“Of course, I’m worried about the mistakes,” City’s manager said. “But I think that was not an easy game. We played against a very strong team. But our performance was not the way we are playing. It is important to think about the future and what the solutions are. I will talk about the team, not individual players. We played really badly. Not the team we see every week in the Premier League.”
The defeat leaves City with three points in Group D, having defeated Viktoria Plzen in the opening game, going into home-and-away meetings with CSKA Moscow. Of the reverse to Bayern, which featured a late Álvaro Negredo consolation, Pellegrini added: “I think we started playing well but after the first goal our team felt the goal and started losing the ball. That is very dangerous against this team. The second half we improved with the changes.
“Of course, I was surprised by the game we played today. The goal from Negredo was a little thing in the end of the match.”
Robben described his side’s victory as surprisingly easy. “The first 70 minutes we played some terrific football,” said the winger. “We were so dominant against a big team in Europe. We didn’t expect an easy game like that. It is a compliment to our team but we expected more from City.
“We didn’t give them any space, we pressed them right up to the goalkeeper and they just kicked it away. Sometimes they gave us too much space and we used the space well.”
© Guardian News & Media Limited 2014
