Borussia Dortmund 1 Manchester City 0: match report Although their failure to win any of their previous Group D fixtures had ended City hopes of progression to the knockout stages, their objective in Westphalia was clear in that nothing but a victory would suffice if they were to harbour any hope of securing a Europa League lifeline. Dortmund, on the other hand, were assured of top spot ahead of runners-up Real Madrid, so their motivation was less obvious. Trailing Bayern Munich by 11 points in the Bundesliga, the German champions hinted at domestic priorities by resting leading scorer Robert Lewandowski and playmaker Mario Götze. Yet Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp had insisted that he wanted his team to "finish in style" and a full and noisy Signal Iduna Park - Westfalenstadion for the traditionalists - created a bear-pit atmosphere which suggested that the supporters fully echoed Klopp's rallying cry. Dortmund, back-to-back Bundesliga champions, were also defending a proud unbeaten home record against English clubs - a six-game run dating back to a 0-0 draw against Manchester United in 1956. Klopp's exciting young team were unfortunate not to leave the Etihad with a comprehensive victory in October, when Joe Hart's goalkeeping heroics earned City a 1-1 draw. But despite their cavalier approach in that game, Dortmund were less ambitious on home turf and City, perhaps sensing the lack of urgency among their opponents, made the brighter start. The game was light on goalmouth action, however, and despite the energy of Carlos Tévez, neither goalkeeper was troubled until Oliver Kirch forced a routine save from Hart from 20 yards in the 12th minute. With the giant screens inside the stadium flashing regular updates from Madrid, where Real had quickly built a commanding lead at home to Ajax, City knew that there would be little danger of the Dutch champions securing the victory that would render the outcome of this game as meaningless. But City simply had to score. Their head-to-head record against Ajax, having lost and drawn against Frank de Boer's team, meant that a point here would not be enough, even though City's goal difference was much healthier than the Dutch team's. It was not until the 24th minute that City gave themselves a sight of Roman Weidenfeller's goal, however, and even then, Tévez was denied the chance to convert Edin Dzeko's cross following Marcel Schmelzer's clearance in the six yard box. Dzeko forced Weidenfeller into action in the 33rd minute, though, when he turned and shot from distance after being teed up by Matija Nastasic. The game was clearly for the taking if City wanted it. They just had to sharpen their cutting edge to make the breakthrough, particularly with Dortmund capable of striking at any moment on the counter-attack, a danger emphasised when Marco Reus struck the post shortly before half time. Klopp surprisingly withdrew the impressive Reus at the interval, replacing him with the Polish midfielder Jakub Blaszczykowski, but the change did not affect Dortmund's shape and they almost scored an early second-half goal when Mats Hummels narrowly failed to get on the end of Schmelzer's cross. The near miss roused the hosts from their first-half slumber and City were forced to weather a yellow-and-black storm for the opening 15 minutes of the half, with Hart once again denying Dortmund with an impressive save to keep out Kevin Grosskreutz's close-range strike. But the England goalkeeper's resistance was finally broken in the 57th minute when Schieber slid in to prod Blaszczykowski's menacing cross into the net. Hart's reaction, punching the turf in frustration, suggested that poor defending had led to the goal, but it was perhaps inevitable that the dam had to burst at some stage and Schieber delivered the killer blow. City attempted to fight their way back into the game with Tévez forcing a save from Weidenfeller with a close-range effort on 67 minutes. By that stage, Mancini had introduced Mario Balotelli from the substitutes" bench in an effort to inject pace and unpredictability, but the Italian's only impact was to raise the decibel levels of the home crowd, who jeered Germany's Euro 2012 nemesis mercilessly. As the minutes ticked away, it was Dortmund who went closest to scoring again, with Hart producing another crucial save to deny substitute Lewandowski. Hart can at least look back on his Champions League campaign with some pride. The same cannot be said for his manager or many of his team-mates. Team details Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller, Kirch (Bittencourt 88), Hummels, Felipe Santana, Schmelzer, Grosskreutz, Gundogan, Leitner, Reus (Blaszczykowski 46), Perisic, Schieber (Lewandowski 77). Subs: Langerak, Piszczek, Amini, Gunter. Goal: Schieber 57. Man City: Hart, Maicon, Kompany, Lescott, Nastasic, Barry, Javi Garcia, Nasri (Zabaleta 68), Tevez, Sinclair (Aguero 57), Dzeko (Balotelli 65). Subs: Pantilimon, Nimely, Meppen-Walter, Evans. Booked: Javi Garcia, Lescott, Balotelli. Att: 62,000 Referee: M Mazic (Serbia).