UEFA CUP QUARTER-FINAL: Manchester City 2 Hamburg 1 MANCHESTER CITY'S hopes of ending their 33-year wait for a trophy were extinguished for another season despite a performance that combined equal measures of spirit of togetherness. This was a courageous effort from Mark Hughes's team and they deserved the ovation they received at the final whistle but, ultimately, the damage inflicted in Hamburg a week earlier was too much for them to overcome.
In the long term that could mean ramifications for Hughes but this was not a night for recriminations, even if it does make the manager’s position look increasingly vulnerable in the summer.
Hughes will reflect on the two free-kicks from Elano that struck the woodwork and a plethora of other chances during a night when there were long spells of near-unremitting pressure. Elano’s penalty and Felipe Caicedo’s second-half goal offered hope but, in the end, they left themselves with too much to do after going 1-0 down on the night and their cause was not helped when Richard Dunne was sent off 15 minutes from the end. It was the defender’s fourth red card in 11 months.
Hughes’s night could hardly have got off to a worse start. Jonathan Pitroipa, Hamburg’s right-sided midfielder, began the move, running with the ball at Wayne Bridge and then sending a low centre into the penalty area. Richard Dunne was the first player who could have intercepted it. The second was Vincent Kompany, playing against his former club, and that left Jose Paolo Guerrero with the space and time to control the cross and direct his shot past Shay Given.
Now 4-1 down on aggregate, City were generously awarded a penalty four minutes later. Piotr Trochowski, the Hamburg left-winger, had got in the way of a left-foot effort from Elano, the ball ricocheting off the top of his arm, but there was no deliberate attempt to handle the ball.
For City, however, this was a stroke of good fortune that reinvigorated a raucous crowd. Elano struck the penalty emphatically to the right of Frank Rost and that gave City fresh belief.
The rest of the first half was a breathless affair with Robinho and Elano causing problems for the German defence and three minutes before the interval, Elano thumped a 30-yard free-kick against the crossbar. Yet City’s best chances of the opening 45 minutes both fell to Felipe Caicedo and on both occasions he did not show enough conviction in front of goal.
Four minutes into the second half, Caicedo atoned. Again, City benefited from the officials’ generosity, with Micah Richards straying offside at the beginning of the move. The flag was never raised and Stephen Ireland threaded a pass into Caicedo on the edge of the penalty area. Michael Gravgaard, the Hamburg centre-half, made a mess of trying to cut out the pass and Caicedo turned, eluded the next defender, Jerome Boateng, and stroked his left-foot shot beyond Rost.
The volume went up again when, in quick succession, another Elano free-kick hit a post and his corner was turned over the bar by Caicedo from inside the six-yard area. Soon afterwards Caicedo did beat Rost again but this time, to the crowd’s anguish, he was denied by a marginal offside decision. It was a grandstand finish but Dunne, having already been booked, did his team-mates no favours when he clattered into the Hamburg substitute Mladen Petric.
Guardian Service
MANCHESTER CITY:Given, Richards, Onuoha, Dunne, Bridge, Zabaleta (Fernandes 77), Kompany, Ireland, Elano (Sturridge 84), Robinho, Caicedo. Subs not used: Hart, Garrido, Petrov, Evans, Logan. Sent off: Dunne (75). Booked: Dunne, Kompany.
HAMBURG:Rost, Boateng, Gravgaard, Mathijsen, Jansen, Pitroipa, Jarolim, Aogo, Trochowski (Petric 73), Guerrero, Olic. Subs not used: Hesl, Da Silva, Ndjeng, Rincon, Schulz, Torun.
Referee:Nicola Rizzoli (Italy).
