FOOTBALL Live

Thursday September 18, 2008 Finished City of Manchester Stadium

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Omonia Nicosia

  • Duro 49’

Manchester City

  • Jo 59’, 72’
  1. Jo brace fires City to win

    Jo brace fires City to win

    Jo netted twice as Manchester City came from behind to beat a spirited Omonia Nicosia 2-1 in an entertaining UEFA Cup first round clash. More

  • Live Commentary

    Time:90'
    • Omonia Nicosia
    • Manchester City
    • - Thanks for joining us for the action... still plenty more to come, including Everton and Tottenham!
    • 90'+2 And there goes the whistle! City scrape victory - it wasn't easy but they look good for the second leg in a fortnight.
    • 90'+1 Oooh! Real chance to grab a draw for Clayton! But Hart sticks out a foot to repel the substitute's poked effort!
    • 90' Four minutes of added time to be played... still time for Nicosia to get something.
    • 85' City make a double change, Elano and Kompany coming off and Hamman and Fernandes on.
    • 77' Jo is brought off by Mark Hughes, and on comes Daniel Sturridge to replace him.
    • 76' OFF THE BAR! What a strike from Duro! He lets fly from 30 yards out with a wicked dipping effort! Hart is beaten again, but the cross bar comes to his rescue!
    • 75' Oooh! Niculescu's first touch brings a save out of Hart, who has to stretch out his left hand!
    • 74' Niculescu comes on to replace Aloneftis for Nicosia.
    • 72' GOAL! Jo gets another! And what a fine strike it is! The Brazilian takes down a deep Garriso cross on his thigh before firing back across the face of the keeper into the far corner! Brilliant!
    • 67' Robinho's getting a little frustrated now... he's pulled up for an innocuous challenge... he doesn't like the decision and he talks himself into the book.
    • 62' Ooooh! But it's the hosts who fashion the next chance! Christofi somehow gets past two City defenders before playing the ball across to Okkas, who fires wide! Half the ground thought that one was in!
    • 60' SWP fires into the side netting soon after the restart! City will hope to grab a winner now...
    • 59' GOAL! But it's City who score next! SWP robs Charalambous of possession before playing the ball across the face of goal for Jo to finish! That time, the Brazilian really couldn't miss, although his effort was hardly powered home... 1-1 now!
    • 58' Nicosia are playing with such confidence at the moment, you wouldn't bet against them getting another...
    • 57' Oooh! What an effort from Ndikumana! The full back is allowed to advance forward, and he thinks 'why not?' Hart's nowhere near it as the ball flashes just wide of the post!
    • 55' OFF THE BAR! What do City have to do to score? Jo races towards goal and lets fly with a blockbuster! But it cannons back off the crossbar!
    • 53' Ireland's through here! MUST BE! NO! He sees his low effort hit the legs of the keeper and City will have to wait to get on the scoresheet!
    • 51' Back at the other end, Elano flashes a long range effort wide of the post.
    • 50' City have been stunned by that... say it quietly, but Joe Hart should have done better - he was nowhere near the free kick.
    • 49' GOAL! DURO HIMSELF PUTS THE HOSTS IN THE LEAD! And what a strike it is! The Albanian unleashes an unstoppable drive from the free kick and the Nicosia lead 1-0!
    • 48' Kompany makes a poorly timed tackle on Duro, just outside the box... free kick to Nicosia and this could be dangerous for City.
    • 46' One change to tell you about... Omonia Nicosia have replaced Aguirre with Bangura.
    • 46' Back underway in Nicosia!
    • 45'+2 There goes the half-time whislte and after 45 minutes of play, it's stil goalless, although City have had the better of the opening period.
    • 44' Off the post again! This time it's Ireland who gets a bit of luck in the six yard box to reach Jo's ball in! But as he tries to pull it back to Robinho, the ball strikes the outside of the post and Nicosia can breathe again!
    • 43' Duro takes a huge dive over Ireland's outstretched foot... and the referee rightly books the Albanian for his impression of Tom Daly.
    • 41' Ooooh! Two great chances in quick succession! First Elano displays a great first touch to burst into the box, only to see the bal nicked off his toes by a great defensive tackle! And then seconds later Jo is played in by Robinho, but his effort rebounds back off the base of the post!
    • 39' City still have possession... and the home crowd are beginning to get frustrated...
    • 38' Elano comes deep to get the ball in a bid to conjure something for City... this is patient build-up from the visitors.
    • 35' SWP threatens to break down the right... he's brought down by Alonefitis... City take the free kick quickly but they can't make anything of it.
    • 31' The crowd are drawn out of their seats as a long ball nearly finds Aguirre... the off side flag is up on the far side though.
    • 29' Here come City again.... but this time Ndikumana shuts the door in Robinho's face.
    • 27' WHAT A MISS FROM JO! Ireland does really well to win the ball off Charalambous on the edge of the box before playing the ball across the face of goal... all Jo has to do is make contact! But he completely misses it and the chance goes begging!
    • 24' And Garrido joins him there a minute later, for stopping the tricky Christofi in his tracks.
    • 23' Kaseka goes into the book for a trip on Robinho...
    • 14' SWP goes close! Great effort from the little man! Giorgallides gets the slightest touch on it to divert the ball behind for a corner!
    • 11' City have started well... chance for Ireland now! Oooh, awful shot from the City midfielder, way over the bar from Robinho's neat lay off.
    • 4' Christofi centres now for Nicosia... it's a dangerous looking ball that only just misses the far post! Hart was in trouble there!
    • 2' ROBINHO! Oooh! First chance of the day falls to Robinho! But the Brazilian's side footer is well clawed away by Giorgallides!
    • 2' SWP bursts onto a through ball... he cuts back towards Elano, but a Nicosia defender is there to hack the ball clear!
    • 2' Here's Robinho with his first touch... and he wins an early throw for City.
    • 1' Here we go! Underway in Nicosia!
    • - It's hot over in Cyprus today... that could well affect City players.
    • - Mark Hughes has recalled Javier Garrido and Elano, while Robinho gets the nod to start.
    • - Hello and welcome to eurosport.yahoo.com's LIVE coverage of Manchester City's first round clash with Omonia Nicosia in Cyprus!

  • Team Stats

    Omonia Nicosia Stats Manchester City
    40% Possession 59%
    19 Shots 18
    5 Shots on target 7
    3 Saves 3
    2 Corners 1
    15 Fouls 15
    5 Offsides 2
    2 Yellow cards 2
    0 Red cards 0
    30 Tackles 27
    244 Accurate passes 408
    37 Bad passes 50

  • Player Stats

    G =
    Goals
    S =
    Shots
    SoT =
    Shot on Target
    F =
    Fouls
    FW =
    Fouls Won
    O =
    Offsides
    A =
    Assists
    AP =
    Accurate Passes
    BP =
    Bad Passes
    T =
    Tackles
    • Omonia Nicosia
      G S SoT F FW O A AP BP T
      30 Antonis Georgallides 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 0
      6 Marcelo Pletsch 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 30 4 3
      3 Hamad Ndikumana 0 3 0 2 3 0 0 16 0 5
      33 Ilias Charalambous 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 17 5 2
      4 Timo Wenzel 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 26 3 4
      21 Klodian Duro 1 5 1 4 3 0 0 45 6 3
      16 Noel Kaseke 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 34 6 3
      46 Efstathios Aloneftis 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 8 3 1
      25 Giannakis Okkas 0 3 1 2 2 0 0 16 2 3
      9 Francisco Aguirre 0 1 1 0 1 3 0 2 1 1
      77 Demetris Christofi 0 2 1 0 1 2 0 21 2 4
      5 Dimitris Maris 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      99 Arlindo Cafú 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      2 Rasheed Alabi 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      22 Clayton Ferreira Cruz 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 0
      1 Nikolas Asprogenis 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      20 Mustapha Bangura 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 15 5 1
      7 Claudiu Niculescu 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 4 0 0
    • Manchester City
      G S SoT F FW O A AP BP T
      1 Joe Hart 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 3 0
      2 Micah Richards 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 39 0 1
      33 Vincent Kompany 0 1 0 4 1 0 0 42 2 2
      15 Javier Garrido 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 43 14 4
      5 Pablo Zabaleta 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 32 0 5
      22 Richard Dunne 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 41 4 1
      11 Blumer Elano 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 49 14 4
      8 Shaun Wright-Phillips 0 3 2 0 6 0 1 29 2 3
      7 Stephen Ireland 0 3 1 1 1 0 0 42 2 5
      10 Robson de Souza 0 4 2 1 2 1 0 45 8 1
      14 João Alves de Assis Silva 2 5 2 4 1 1 0 8 0 0
      21 Dietmar Hamann 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 0 0
      3 Michael Ball 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      19 Gelson Fernandes 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 1 1
      28 Daniel Sturridge 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0
      16 Kasper Schmeichel 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      26 Tal Ben Haim 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
      24 Ched Evans 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

  • Summary

    • - Thanks for joining us for the action... still plenty more to come, including Everton and Tottenham!
    • 90'+1 Oooh! Real chance to grab a draw for Clayton! But Hart sticks out a foot to repel the substitute's poked effort!
    • 76' OFF THE BAR! What a strike from Duro! He lets fly from 30 yards out with a wicked dipping effort! Hart is beaten again, but the cross bar comes to his rescue!
    • 75' Oooh! Niculescu's first touch brings a save out of Hart, who has to stretch out his left hand!
    • 72' GOAL! Jo gets another! And what a fine strike it is! The Brazilian takes down a deep Garriso cross on his thigh before firing back across the face of the keeper into the far corner! Brilliant!
    • 62' Ooooh! But it's the hosts who fashion the next chance! Christofi somehow gets past two City defenders before playing the ball across to Okkas, who fires wide! Half the ground thought that one was in!
    • 59' GOAL! But it's City who score next! SWP robs Charalambous of possession before playing the ball across the face of goal for Jo to finish! That time, the Brazilian really couldn't miss, although his effort was hardly powered home... 1-1 now!
    • 57' Oooh! What an effort from Ndikumana! The full back is allowed to advance forward, and he thinks 'why not?' Hart's nowhere near it as the ball flashes just wide of the post!
    • 55' OFF THE BAR! What do City have to do to score? Jo races towards goal and lets fly with a blockbuster! But it cannons back off the crossbar!
    • 53' Ireland's through here! MUST BE! NO! He sees his low effort hit the legs of the keeper and City will have to wait to get on the scoresheet!
    • 49' GOAL! DURO HIMSELF PUTS THE HOSTS IN THE LEAD! And what a strike it is! The Albanian unleashes an unstoppable drive from the free kick and the Nicosia lead 1-0!
    • 44' Off the post again! This time it's Ireland who gets a bit of luck in the six yard box to reach Jo's ball in! But as he tries to pull it back to Robinho, the ball strikes the outside of the post and Nicosia can breathe again!
    • 41' Ooooh! Two great chances in quick succession! First Elano displays a great first touch to burst into the box, only to see the bal nicked off his toes by a great defensive tackle! And then seconds later Jo is played in by Robinho, but his effort rebounds back off the base of the post!
    • 27' WHAT A MISS FROM JO! Ireland does really well to win the ball off Charalambous on the edge of the box before playing the ball across the face of goal... all Jo has to do is make contact! But he completely misses it and the chance goes begging!
    • 14' SWP goes close! Great effort from the little man! Giorgallides gets the slightest touch on it to divert the ball behind for a corner!
    • 2' ROBINHO! Oooh! First chance of the day falls to Robinho! But the Brazilian's side footer is well clawed away by Giorgallides!

Live Team Line-Up

  • Referee: Tomas Gea

  • Omonia Nicosia

    Manager: Nedum Dudic

    Captain: Elias Charalambous

    Starting line-up

    • A. Georgallides
    • H. Ndikumana
    • M. Papaioannou
    • T. Wenzel
    • S. Aloneftis Substitution Out (74′)
    • K. Duro Goal Yellow Card
    • E. Charalambous
    • D. Christofi
    • N. Kaseke Yellow Card
    • Y. Okkas Substitution Out (80′)
    • F. Aguirre Substitution Out (46′)

    Subs

    • J. Clayton Substitution In80′
    • C. Niculescu Substitution In74′
    • C. Cafu
    • R. Alabi
    • N. Asprogenis
    • M. Bangura Substitution In46′
    • D. Maris

    Injured

    None

    Suspended

    None

  • Manchester City

    Manager: Mark Hughes

    Captain: Richard Dunne

    Starting line-up

    • J. Hart
    • P. Zabaleta
    • R. Dunne
    • M. Richards
    • J. Garrido Yellow Card
    • S. Wright-Phillips
    • S. Ireland
    • V. Kompany Substitution Out (84′)
    • .. Robinho Yellow Card
    • B. Elano Substitution Out (85′)
    • .. Jo Goals×2 Substitution Out (77′)

    Subs

    • D. Hamann Substitution In85′
    • M. Ball
    • K. Schmeichel
    • T. Ben Haim
    • G. Fernandes Substitution In84′
    • D. Sturridge Substitution In77′
    • C. Evans

    Injured

    • M. Petrov
    • V. Bojinov
    • M. Benjani

    Suspended

    None