SWANSEA 0, MANCHESTER CITY 0
Swansea and Manchester City played out a turgid end-of-season goalless draw as neither side could find their shooting boots to take control.
City manager Roberto Mancini fully recognised the issues at hand for the forthcoming FA Cup final.
“We wanted to win this game to get second position without problems, now we have the FA Cup final next week. We played a good game and deserved to win but we missed some incredible chances.”
The Swans have now only won once since lifting the Capital One Cup earlier this year while familiar failings in front of goal have plagued City this season. City were merely matching Swansea in their lack of marksmanship after watching Pablo Hernandez and an unfit looking Michu fail to capitalise on opening carved out by Nathan Dyer.
Wayne Routledge also put Hernandez through but a poor first touch robbed him of a prime shooting opportunity.
Next week’s FA Cup final might also have been a factor in City’s lacklustre performance against Swansea with players taking it easy. Some City players could now be finding their place in the final in danger after Yaya Toure was hauled off at half time by Mancini and replaced by Edin Dzeko. James Milner played on despite a pre-match injury scare, however, and tested Swansea’s excellent Ashley Williams who repelled many City attacks.
City did carve out their usual quota of chances though, and Samir Nasri could have been more forceful with his shot after drawing a save from Michel Vorm.
The visitors almost paid for their lack of penetration when referee Mike Jones waved away strong claims for a Swansea penalty after Matija Nastasic appeared to bring down Michu in the area.
City hit back but Vorm and Williams combined to deny David Silva just before half time.
Dzeko, on for the second half, brought a more attacking philosphy to the City front line but he could not beat the superb Williams at the back and contrived to miss an open goal from four yards after being put through after substitute Carlos Tevez and Pablo Zabaleta combined to give the Bosnian what looked like a sitter but there was to be no heroics this week as his effort went wide and summed up City’s afternoon.