UEFA Cup - City lucky to escape with win

Eurosport - Fri, 07 Nov 09:26:00 2008

Manchester City got their UEFA Cup Group A campaign off to a winning start with an entertaining 3-2 victory over Steve McClaren's Twente at the City of Manchester Stadium.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 UEFA Cup Manchester City-Twente Shaun Wright Phillips - 0

Shaun Wright-Phillips gave the home side a second-minute lead, but stagnant defending saw Eljero Elia equalise on 16 minutes. Robinho brilliantly restored City's lead 12 minutes into the second half before Benjani came off the bench to make it 3-1 two minutes later.

But Rob Wielaert's header at a corner ensured the match stayed competitive to the final whistle, with City going on to claim another goal-filled home win to ease the pressure after some recent questionable performances in the Premier League.

City - hugely impressive at home for much of the season - made a very positive start to the match and had the lead in two minutes when Wright-Phillips earned some space with a delightful flick, sprinted onto Jo's return pass before firing low across Twente keeper Sander Boschker.

But a moment of madness in the City defence 14 minutes later gifted an equaliser to the visitors. The home players stopped and waited for a whistle when Pablo Zabaleta and Elia contested a bouncing ball inside the City half. By the time they worked out that the referee was not going to blow, Elia had sprinted onto the loose ball and had finished well past Joe Hart.

Suddenly, any fluency that the home side had shown at the start of the match disappeared as Mark Hughes's four changes - including the return of Darius Vassell after a three-month injury lay-off - seemed to be a decision that had backfired.

But, presumably after a half-time rollicking from Hughes and his coaching staff, City game out and started the second period with real purpose, with Jo - also returning from three games out through illness - and Wright-Phillips going close.

City went back into the lead on 57 minutes when the hard-working Stephen Ireland fed Robinho on the left, one touch took him inside his marker before the Brazilian lashed a right-foot shot into the far top-corner.

Just four minutes later, they had a two-goal cushion when Benjani broke the offside trap on the half-way line, sprinted through on goal and shot inside the far post, via a significant deflection which wrong-footed the keeper.

But instead of seeing the rest of the match out in comfort, City again shot themselves in the foot with a piece of sloppy defending when Micah Richards lost the run of Twente skipper Wielaert, who planted a fine header past Hart into the far corner.

With the lead now more slender than it needed to be, there were plenty of nervous moments in the home stands as substitute Stein Huysegems failed to connect properly with a shot from 10 yards after the ball had been pulled back to him by Elia.

But as the game opened up in the final stages, City were also creating chances at the other end, Robinho hitting the post after intercepting a pass inside the Twente half and running and beating the final defender.

The brilliant Brazilian hit the same far post with another low effort from a tight angle with two minutes to go as City just failed to get a fourth to get their Group A campaign off to a more convincing start - and they needed another shocking miss from Huysegems in stoppage time to ensure it was three rather than one point they finished with.

Alex Sharratt / Eurosport

Comment 26 - 45 of 45

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  1. And? just having some fun, and you keep rising to it, who is the sad one.... :)

    From redimaster, on Thu 13 Nov 11:25PM

  2. ...an empty barrel STILL making the most noise, with over a third of the posts on this thread alone. You couldn't make it up, could you?

    From flyingvic@..., on Wed 12 Nov 4:59PM

  3. We'll the Theatre of Dreams will make more noise than the City ground as there is hardley anyone at the City ground these days lol.

    From redimaster, on Wed 12 Nov 4:30PM

  4. You're quite right, of course. The barrel I'm scraping is the empty one from the Theatre of Wet Dreams that makes the most noise...

    From flyingvic@..., on Tue 11 Nov 10:51PM

  5. Is that all you can do now, is pick on one spelling mistake. Compared to the way some people on here write, that is scraping the barrel...

    From redimaster, on Mon 10 Nov 11:36PM

  6. Could your own "high" IQ cope with "puerile"?

    From flyingvic@..., on Mon 10 Nov 12:18PM

  7. More purile rubbish coming from low IQ muppets, As I said before can't expect much from City fans these days, except expletives, because you have no answer to our record, so you swear instead :)

    PS My rock is very nice thanks worth more than your cardboard box.

    From redimaster, on Sat 8 Nov 9:08PM

  8. fort u ad a life redimaster ??? seems to me u spend lots ov time arguein the @#$% wiv mighty blues !! go crawl back under yer stone @#$%

    From Ant S, on Sat 8 Nov 7:18PM

  9. Another six points off the rags this season looming.

    Too easy.

    From D, on Sat 8 Nov 12:45PM

  10. m.fowler771 - actually, I heard that your debt is MASSIVE?

    Tick Tock.

    From D, on Sat 8 Nov 12:43PM

  11. Obsessed.

    From flyingvic@..., on Sat 8 Nov 10:13AM

  12. Just looked on City's website, when I eventually found where they keep Trophy listing, I was amused to see that they padded the list out by adding runners up positions as well. LOL

    European Cup Winners' Cup: 1970

    Premier League Best Season: 2004-05 finished 8th
    Football League Champions: 1936-37, 1967-68
    Football League Runners-up: 1903-04, 1920-21, 1976-77

    Division One Champions: 2001-02
    Division One Runners-up: 1999-2000

    Division Two Champions (original): 1898-99, 1902-03, 1909-10, 1927-28, 1946-47, 1965-66
    Division Two Runners-up (original): 1895-96, 1950-51, 1988-89
    Division Two Play Off Winners: 1998-99

    FA Cup Winners: 1904, 1934, 1956, 1969
    FA Cup Runners-up: 1926, 1933, 1955, 1981

    League Cup Winners: 1970, 1976
    League Cup Runners-up: 1974

    FA Charity Shield Winners: 1937-38, 1968-69, 1972-73

    Full Members Cup Runners-up: 1986

    FA Youth Cup Winners: 1986, 2008
    Reserve League Champions: 1977-78, 1986-87, 1999-2000

    From redimaster, on Sat 8 Nov 1:06AM

  13. Your right there is only 1 thing worth saying.
    League 17 Times Winners
    FA Cup 11 Times Winners
    League Cup 2 Times Winners
    Charity Shield 17 Times Winners
    European Cup 3 Times Winners
    plus 3 misc euro/international cup winners

    From redimaster, on Sat 8 Nov 1:02AM

  14. lol

    From redimaster, on Sat 8 Nov 12:03AM

  15. The fact that you had six things you thought were worth saying is perhaps the saddest part...

    From flyingvic@..., on Fri 7 Nov 11:58PM

  16. Hmm, the last 6 posts were all done over 20min period due to the fact it would not let me post all in 1 go. Not as if I posted every hour. Muppet

    From redimaster, on Fri 7 Nov 9:31PM

  17. redimaster writes: "I have a life unlike the sad city fans who spout purile comments on Manu pages just coz the have nothing better to do, post a decent comment or don't post at all"....in contributing over 25% of the comments so far on this article. It's not just the Yanks who don't get irony, is it?

    From flyingvic@..., on Fri 7 Nov 1:58PM

  18. We need to tighten up at the back......What has gone wrong lately? Dunny could be carrying an injury nd Micah aint at the races of late. Thank god for S W P nd eventually Robinho's magic in the second half. We can't depend on that each week though,Jo looks lost at the moment nd needs time, Petrov is a huge blow as he always gave us an option.I liked the look of the Twente winger Elia maybe we need to watch him for the future. Finally we need some height nd muscle at the back nd in midfield.True Blue

    From robert.watson44, on Fri 7 Nov 12:26PM

  19. following the massive 2-0 defeat against bolton i guess a massive 3-2 win against twente is a good result.

    From m.fowler771@..., on Fri 7 Nov 9:44AM

  20. I love u all d blues over there, we rejoice with man city cos we love prwemiership. shaun philips help them out

    From Adedayo, on Fri 7 Nov 9:37AM
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