(Football news) Manchester City were forced to settle for a 0-0 draw against Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park after Riyad Mahrez missed a penalty. The result meant that both teams progressed into the Round of 16 of the Champions League with Pep Guardiola’s team topping the group. The Citizens had a lacklustre first half, failing to register a single goal on target for the second time, the first being against the same opponents in the reverse fixture. Dortmund on the other hand had an excellent opportunity to take the lead through Youssoufa Moukoko, whose effort went wide.

Pep Guardiola replaced Erling Haaland and Joao Cancelo at halftime with the Norwegian being kept quiet by his former teammate Mats Hummels while Cancelo was negated by the impressive Karim Adeyemi. Guardiola justified the changes by saying that both the players were unwell before the game, he said “Erling had a little bit of fever before the game. Joao as well. He had a knock in his feet. He was looking tired, Joao, as well. So that's why we changed it." Haaland also had an injury scare but Pep Guardiola said “I spoke with (the medical staff) at half-time and they were a little bit concerned, but I saw him walking more or less normally. We will see."

City will be undoubtedly concerned with Riyad Mahrez’s penalty record after the Algerian missed his second penalty in the Champions League this season (the first being against Copenhagen). The 31 year old has missed a total of 10 penalties for both club and country in his career so far and has missed three of his last four penalties for Manchester City after scoring nine from 10 attempts prior to that. It will be interesting to see if Pep Guardiola might relieve Mahrez of penalty duties due to his failure to convert from the spot and when asked, the Spaniard said “Of course it's a problem. Since I was here we missed 24 or 25 penalties, most of them in the Champions League, it's too much. 

"I always admire the courage, the responsibility to do it. But we miss a lot of penalties. We have to improve. The little details and margins in this competition is the key, the difference. Riyad scored a lot in big important moments, here [in the 2021 Champions League quarter-finals]. If he feels it next time, he is going to take it. But we have to improve." Since the 2015-16 season, no Premier League team has missed more penalties than Manchester City (25) across all competitions. Speaking after the match Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said “We played much better in the second half than in the first half. We conceded some counter-attacks from them, they're so fast. We suffered that our game on Saturday was so demanding, physicality and the trip and everything. We are a little tired. But we achieved what we wanted, top of the group again, so really good."

Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham said “It is good for us on that side of the game, defensively we were really good and not many sides keep clean sheets against City with the quality they have got. To do that is a positive aspect, but I think we could have gone for it a bit more, we had some chances to win the game. But we have to grateful in the end because they missed a penalty and Greg (Kobel) made a huge save. Overall we're happy because we were here to get to the next round and we've done it. "It is nice to keep all of them City players out, but especially him [Haaland] because we know how dangerous he is. I said to him 'it's 1-1 between us now,' but I'm not too satisfied because I haven't scored tonight either. But ultimately we're happy because we got the draw and we can continue our journey."

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