MANCHESTER City survived a late scare to collect a point from their high-profile Europa League clash with Juventus.

Roberto Mancini’s men had run out of attacking ideas themselves when veteran forward Alessandro Del Piero strode up to blast a free-kick off the underside of Joe Hart’s crossbar.

Del Piero claimed the ball bounced in, but the merits of a goal-line assistant were plain to see as the official correctly ruled it had come down straight onto the goal-line.

It ensured parity for City against the team Mancini used to travel ten hours on a bus to watch as a six-year-old after Adam Johnson had levelled Vincenzo Iaquinta’s early opener before the break.

City did not really deserve any more – and Emmanuel Adebayor was particularly poor.

However, if they can come out on top in back-to-back meetings with Polish champions Lech Poznan which now follow, the Blues should advance to the knock-out phase without too much trouble.

Johnson revealed his goal at Eastlands came straight off the training ground.

The former Middlesbrough winger said: “I’ve been working on it a bit in training, running across defenders.

The manager (Roberto Mancini) wants me to do it more.

“It was a great pass by Yaya Toure, my first touch took it away from the goalkeeper and I thought I might need another...’’ ‘‘I haven’t played much in recent weeks so I was delighted to start tonight.’’ Johnson added: “Italian sides obviously defend well but I think we were the better team.

“In the second half they were pegged in their own half for most of it, I think we should have won the game.”