Aleksandar Kolarov, who once played for Lazio against Roma in the Rome derby, had said: “It’s 100% a must-win game because we didn’t start well, losing in Munich. We must beat them.” As footballers – like all professional sportsmen – are the great revisionists do not be surprised to hear the City defender or any home player decide that, actually, a draw is a good result when speaking about this game. But let there be no kidding: England’s champions have one point from their two games and now have a rather mountain-sized hill to climb to qualify from Group E.  Manuel Pellegrini said before the match: “So far it has been a good eight days for us – we won twice and scored 11 goals, looking like the side that scored so many times last season on the way to winning two trophies. If we are to progress then our home will be vital, starting against Roma when the fans can again make the difference. I thought we were very unlucky not to get a point from our opening match in Munich when we played a good game tactically but lost a goal in the last minute.” This was a match in which virtually all of the above proved hollow. City’s tactics were aimless and few chances created.  James Milner must have been, in parlance, “gutted” to be a substitute given his recent barnstorming form. Manuel Pellegrini’s thinking was Jesús Navas’s pace might wreak havoc against the ageing legs of Ashley Cole. There was little sign. Navas’s City career has flickered sporadically into life and if he not bursting beyond full-backs and unloading crosses at rigid right-angles the 28-year-old is basically a passenger. Or a liability as the mistake that gave possession early on to Francesco Totti, forcing him to chase back illustrated. By half-time Pellegrini had seen enough and Navas was hooked for … Milner.  Manuel Pellegrini had said of Eliaquim Mangala’s horror show in Saturday’s 4-2 win at Hull City: “We gave away an own goal and a penalty which was disappointing but these things can happen to any player and to any team.” If this forgave the Frenchman it was Martín Demichelis who was preferred as Mangala dropped to the bench. This reunited the Vincent Kompany-Demichelis axis but they could do nothing about the Radja Nainggolan pass that punched a hole in their rearguard to create Francesco Totti’s chip. The old Demichelis failing of suspect speed on crucial European nights was also evident: one moment had Gervinho hunting down the ball to leave the Argentinean embarrassingly in his wake.  The eye fell on four players who showed how stringent fitness regimes and Italian football’s slower pace can stretch careers. The big question was whether the combined years of Francesco Totti, 38, Maicon, 33, Seydou Keita, 34 and the 33-year-old Ashley Cole could handle a City team honed by the hurtling pace of the Premier League. The answer proved to be yes despite Maicon’s early concession of a penalty, which Sergio Agüero steered home. After this Maicon hit the bar and got in behind the defence before being ruled offside. Totti produced a peach of a finish to dink his chip beyond a flailing Joe Hart. Factor in Cole making runs and Keita knitting Roma together in midfield and City were given a lesson in how the ball can do the graft.
Jamie Jackson: Aleksandar Kolarov ends up with egg on his face; Jesús Navas the flying wing crashes and burns