Manchester City and Juventus played out a very entertaining 1-1 Europa League draw at Eastlands on Thursday evening.
Adam Johnson finished superbly to cancel out Vincenzo Iaquinta’s early opener in the Group A encounter, though Juve veteran Allesandro Del Piero came close to winning it for the visitors late on when he rattled the crossbar with a free-kick.
The Italian side may not be the force they once were but, ahead of the game, the very sound of the fixture ‘Manchester City versus Juventus’ was still music to the ears of the City fans who feel they are getting closer to the top teams on the continent.
The visitors, knocked out of this competition by Fulham last season after earlier exiting the Champions League, are looking to rebuild themselves and they started in very confident fashion in Manchester, with Iaquinta firing an early 25-yard shot goalwards that needed tipping around the post by Joe Hart.
Hart then had to beat away a long-range free-kick from Bianconeri great Del Piero, and ten minutes in he had to pick the ball out of his net after he was deceived by a deflected Iaquinta effort.
Jerome Boateng, making his first City start after injury delayed his debut, backed off the Italy international forward, who cut in from the left and from 30 yards hit a well-struck effort that glanced off Kolo Toure before seeping into Hart’s left bottom corner.
The goal was good reward for the Old Lady’s rampant start, but they tired quickly as City came right back into the game and put their guests under pressure, a Carlos Tevez shot on 20 minutes going just wide as they announced themselves as an attacking force.
Former Juve midfield man Patrick Vieira then failed to test his old Arsenal team-mate Alex Manninger with a weak effort, and Johnson and Boateng were also off target with what were difficult opportunities.
Gareth Barry went the closest to date with ten minutes to go until the break. The midfielder got his head to an excellent Tevez cross from the left but could only direct it onto the post and no City player was able to force the loose ball in past Manninger.
But the City pressure told as they levelled the game on 37 minutes. Yaya Toure made it, the Ivorian picking the perfect past to split the Bianconeri defence with the lively Johnson running onto the ball and coolly toe-poking home.
Milos Krasic went up the other end and tried to respond for Juventus, but was only booked for diving after he hit the ground following a Vincent Kompany challenge and the sides went in level at the break.
Del Piero tested Hart with a snap-shot straight away after the restart, but the England goalkeeper was not caught out and – after saving a subsequent Krasic inswinger - was able to watch on for the next quarter of an hour as pretty much all the action was happening at the other end.
City had brought on Dedryck Boyata for Pablo Zabaleta, who was being protected from a slight muscle strain. The young Belgian did not have much to do though. Tevez, Barry and Johnson were the players seeing most of the ball, while Emmanuel Adebayor went close with a stretching shot that Manninger saved before seeing that the offside flag was up in any case.
Johnson, who was causing a lot of problems for Juventus full back Zdenek Grygera, also drew a save from the Austrian stopper before Hart finally had to be alert to see a vicious 30-yard Del Piero free-kick shoot just an inch or so wide.
Adebayor, who would eventually be replaced by David Silva, could not make decent contact with his head after more heavy industry from Tevez on the periphery, the Togolese striker also failing to control the ball from another fine Yaya Toure through-ball, allowing Giorgio Chiellini to clear.
And despite City having more of the attacking play it was Juve who came so close to the winner with five minutes to play, as Del Piero lined up yet another long-range free-kick and this time struck the bar from 30 yards before the ball eventually made its way to safety.
The subsequent waving away of protests, from the experienced Italian and his team-mates, that the ball had crossed the line was proved the correct decision by TV replays.
Former Liverpool midfielder Mohamed Sissoko then shot just wide as City finished nervously, but in the end neither side did quite enough to merit a winner.