a minute away from surrendering their four-year unbeaten european home run, city got off the mark in group d thanks to a mario balotelli penalty.
manchester city fc were left indebted to joe hart's heroics and a 90th-minute mario balotelli penalty to earn a 1-1 draw against borussia dortmund.
defeated by cristiano ronaldo's goal for real madrid cf in the final minute a fortnight ago, city required a similarly tardy intervention on home soil in order to get off the mark in group d. balotelli provided the finishing touch from the spot after a neven subotić handball, cancelling out marco reus' opener for dortmund just after the hour. the german champions' performance warranted more.
both teams were group stage casualties 12 months ago but dortmund's display suggested that they have learned more from the experience. beaten in all three away games in 2011/12, they were slick and inventive, and they got the goal they deserved when reus intercepted a slack sideways pass by substitute jack rodwell. the germany midfielder charged through before shooting across hart, who got a hand to the ball but could not keep it out.
ıt was a goal that had been coming. city have yet to keep a clean sheet this season and dortmund came out determined to exploit such vulnerability. that made for a terrific spectacle, right from the first minute when samir nasri's snapshot tested roman weidenfeller.
dortmund's goalkeeper twice denied sergio agüero after the argentina striker broke through on goal, yet with the rain teeming down and dortmund's 2, 773 noisy fans contributing to an electric atmosphere, the visitors soon made their presence felt. mario götze was the first to test hart with a low shot that the england goalkeeper touched on to a post.
hart denied götze twice again in a 60-second spell, staying big to block after he broke clear after a lightning exchange with reus, and then tipping another shot from the midfielder on to the crossbar. ıt was terrific stuff and somehow, after hart had kept out a robert lewandowski shot and silva volleyed over, we reached half-time goalless.
the second half was all dortmund. hart saved from götze and even after reus finally got the better of him, he was soon at it again, producing superb stops from reus and ilkay gündoğan. lewandowski should have finished city off but turned gündoğan's low cross wide when a goal looked certain.
then came balotelli's equaliser and city's lifeline. however, even after that hart had to turn behind another lewandowski strike, as city somehow salvaged a point.
