Man City Show Improvement, but Champions League Target Remains Unchanged

Before Manchester City’s 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena, Vincent Kompany spoke of the need for his side to announce themselves as serious Champions League contenders.

Three seasons of relative underachievement in the competition have led to question marks over the mentality of the City players in Europe’s premier event. For parts of their opening group match of this year’s tournament, it looked as if City had returned stronger from their recent disappointments.

Where they have been overrun by Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern over the past three seasons, City were fairly comfortable for large parts of Wednesday's match.

Kompany and Martin Demichelis stood to up to everything the Germans threw at them, and they had chances to score. Ultimately, however, City once again fell short against one of Europe’s elite sides—a late deflected strike from City old boy Jerome Boateng denied them what would have been a superb point in by far their most difficult game of this group.

It was a bitterly disappointing end to what had been an encouraging start to City's latest attempt at cracking the Champions League code.

Two group-stage exits and a meek last-16 defeat are all they have to show for their three recent forays into Europe. They want more. They want to be impacting the latter stages of this great competition.

At the moment, the feeling amongst many is they lack the edge needed to compete with the likes of Bayern, Real Madrid and Barcelona. It's difficult to argue, even after their obvious improvement on Wednesday night.

Manuel Pellegrini, who was unable to influence proceedings during the game due to a UEFA touchline ban, left Sergio Aguero on the bench, bringing Edin Dzeko back into the starting XI as a lone striker with David Silva just behind.

Silva excelled in that position once again at Arsenal on Saturday, and with Chelsea visiting the Etihad this Sunday, Pellegrini took no risks with his star forward.

Bayern looked dominant in possession for much of the first half, but City created goalscoring opportunities themselves, their counter-attacking style looking effective in fleeting moments. They weren't overrun and out-passed in midfield like they were against Bayern last season, and it looked for much of the evening like they would return to Manchester with a well-earned point.

The big positive for City was the performance of goalkeeper Joe Hart, who answered his critics emphatically with a string of excellent stops to keep Bayern at bay.

Hart’s error for Stoke’s recent winner at the Etihad had led to calls for him to be dropped in favour of new signing Willy Caballero, but Pellegrini’s faith in England’s No. 1 was repaid in Bavaria.

City will feel aggrieved at referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco’s decision not to award them a penalty when Silva was upended in the area by one-time Blues target Mehdi Benatia, per the Daily Mail's Rajvir Rai, but the result was a fair one given that Bayern created the better chances by far.

City stood toe-to-toe with the five-time European champions in many regards, but Bayern's quality eventually told. The introduction of Arjen Robben, a player who strikes fear into almost every defender, helped turn the screw. 

"

Great goal by Boateng, but the damage done by Robben. Love him or loathe him, he knows how to tear a defence apart..

— Mark Ogden (@MOgdenTelegraph) September 17, 2014 "

"

Boateng goal may have taken a deflection off Gotze's back, a potentially decisive one...

— Mark Ogden (@MOgdenTelegraph) September 17, 2014"

The big worry for City is the form of Yaya Toure, whose start to the season has left much to be desired. He was non-existent in this match and looked distinctly unfit, leaving his midfield partner Fernandinho with too much to do.

Games are often won and lost in midfield, and City essentially played a man down in that department in this match.

The Ivorian was key in City's Premier League and League Cup wins last season, scoring over 20 goals from midfield and continuing to be the driving force from deep with his now-trademark powerful runs. All of that has dissipated after a summer in which he appeared unsettled, and his laughing and joking with Bayern manager Pep Guardiola at full-time is unlikely to have impressed the City fans.

City have suffered in this competition in recent seasons. Now is the time for them to show they can make the step up that Kompany craves.

This result, of course, will be hugely disappointing to the City players, but it isn’t terminal. City have five group games left to play, and none will be as tough as this one.

Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and will be following the club from a Manchester base throughout the 2014-15 season. Follow him on Twitter @RobPollard_.