UEFA Cup - Given saves put City through

Eurosport - Fri, 20 Mar 10:20:00 2009

Shay Given kept alive Manchester City's UEFA Cup dreams in Denmark with two exceptional penalty shoot-out saves after Aalborg's two late goals took the game to extra-time.

FOOTBALL Shay Given makes the crucial penalty save for Manchester City against Aalborg - 0

The Irish goalkeeper saved first from Thomas Augustinussen and then from Luton Shelton as all of City's players found the target to earn a quarter-final spot for Mark Hughes's team.

City had looked to be cruising into the last eight before an 85th-minute strike from Shelton and an injury-time penalty by Michael Jakobsen sent the match in to extra-time.

The first hour of the match passed relatively quietly, with City keeping their hosts at bay with ease and creating enough of their own chances to suggest that they would make it through at a canter.

Shaun Wright-Phillips looked in impressive form, tormenting Aalborg down the right flank and setting up early chances for Stephen Ireland and Ched Evans on two and 16 minutes.

Aalborg seemed content to sit back and hit speculative long balls up the pitch, all of which seemed easy pickings for a sharp-looking City defence.

And when Wright-Phillips again began to threaten in the second half - first making a great run on the hour mark, and hitting the crossbar on 82 minutes - it never looked like it would be anything but a quiet finish to the match.

Yet a penalty shout for Aalborg on 61 minutes had given them a huge injection of fighting spirit: Javier Garrido's tackle on Andreas Johansson certainly looked like it should have earned the hosts a spot kick, but the only thing they received was a yellow card for Kasper Risgard for protesting too vehemently.

But while Aalborg looked a much better side in the final 25 minutes they never looked like breaking through.

Yet with five minutes to go, Shelton got on the end of a cross from the right hand side when it was nodded down to him by Caca: the former Sheffield United man controlled the ball off his chest - and possibly his left arm, from the looks of the replay - before firing a right-foot shot past Given.

It seemed too little too late, but when Evans handled brainlessly from a corner in the 90th minute the referee had no option but to point to the spot - and Jakobsen smashed the penalty home to send the match in to extra-time.

Extra time passed with tired legs and speculative long balls, the only meaningful chance being Shelton's header on 102 minutes that missed the target wide to the left.

That only left Given to take centre stage - and secure City's place in the last-eight of the competition.

Toby Keel / Eurosport

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  1. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Then why travel if he's not going to­ feature????...STUPID

    From Chris W, on Wed 18 Mar 12:23PM
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