Manchester City 2 FC Copenhagen 1   Just Enough
Thursday 26th February 2009 : GYKO at the COMSTAD

Manchester City eased into the last 16 of the UEFA Cup by winning 2-1 at home to FC Copenhagen to complete a 4-3 aggregate victory over the Danes.

The home side made much of the early running, with Craig Bellamy and Robinho posing plenty of problems for the visitors.

However, chances were hard to come by until 20 minutes in when Bellamy scampered away down the right and his deflected cross to the far post was headed against the woodwork by Robinho.

Soon after, Robinho tricked his way clear in the area, but Jesper Christiansen made a fine block at his near post.

City continued to call the shots on a rain-soaked Eastlands pitch, but the tie remained evenly balanced.

Just past the half-hour mark Pablo Zabaleta's deflected 20-yarder was well gathered by Christiansen and the keeper then collected a long-range drive from Robinho.

Right on the stroke of half-time Bellamy got clear on the left, but his shot across Christiansen came back off the far post.

Five minutes into the second half Christiansen pushed away a 25-yard free-kick from the impressive Bellamy.

A quick break then seemed certain to bring City the breakthrough, but Shaun Wright-Phillips' ball across the face of goal was inches too far in front of Stephen Ireland.

Seventeen minutes from time City finally took the lead on the night as Bellamy raced onto a long ball out of defence from Zabaleta and drilled a low, right-foot shot under the advancing Christiansen.

Robinho missed a virtual open goal soon afterwards, as City continued to call all the shots in the driving rain.

The star duo of Robinho and Bellamy then combined to make the score 2-0 ten minutes from time, as the Brazilian skipped clear on the left and played in a perfect pass for Bellamy to rifle home from ten yards out.

Martin Vingaard slotted home a consolation for the visitors with almost the last kick of the game, but City were worthy winners on the night and in the tie overall.

Manchester City: Shay Given, Wayne Bridge, Vincent Kompany, Richard Dunne, Nedum Onuoha, Micah Richards, Pablo Zabaleta (Blumer Elano 82), Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland, Craig Bellamy, Robson de Souza Robinho,

Subs not used: Leandro Gláuber, Felipe Caicedo, Joe Hart, Ched Evans, Javier Garrido, Darius Vassell

FC Copenhagen: Christiansen, Kvist, Wendt, Jorgensen, Antonsson, Pospech, Norregaard (Vingaard 76), Hutchinson, Kristensen (Libor Sionko 45), N'Doye (Jesper Gronkjaer 59), Ailton,

Subs not used: Nordstrand, Jensen, Larsson, Coe

Booked: Wendt 62, Kristensen 36

Liverpool 1 Manchester City 1   That's More Like It Blues
Sunday 22nd February 2009 : Stuart Codling at Anfield for GYKO

Liverpool will be chastised for failing to maintain a challenge to Manchester United, yet other offenders are ignored because they are lost from view in the crowd of mediocrity. It is the misfortune of Rafael Benítez's team, seven points adrift of the leaders, to be blamed for being more prominent so far than the rest of the also-rans. This game was a superfluous illustration of Liverpool's weaknesses.

Had the injured Steven Gerrard been on hand, a recovery that led to Dirk Kuyt's equaliser would probably have proceeded to victory. Few will resist making the comparison with United, who scarcely seem conscious of the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo or Wayne Rooney.

All the same, nothing should detract from the approval for a more spirited and organised showing by Manchester City. Players such as Nigel de Jong, in midfield, had a composure and alertness that laid bare the predictability of Liverpool. The visitors even hinted at victory when Craig Bellamy, with the match's opener, maintained his habit of punishing his exes by scoring against them.

More than this will be needed to give Mark Hughes security in his job but the improvement was marked. A side that had been in Uefa Cup action in Copenhagen on Thursday came to Anfield to grapple with well-rested opponents. In addition, the 2-2 result in Denmark was galling because of the shoddiness of the defending, more so as those goals were notched by a team in its mid-season break. Recovering from that ignominy here called for a spirit that has allegedly been waning at City.

It is shortcomings at Liverpool that now demand attention. The leaks about Benítez's struggle to secure greater powers over transfers under a new contract are turning into a soap opera but it is a tiresome one. If this were a television drama, it would have been axed by now because ratings had flatlined. However, the wrangle is a distraction.

At least Liverpool may have a better story to tell in the Champions League, which resumes at Real Madrid on Wednesday. The Bernabéu can be a perilous place but the visitors will be relieved of the obligation to dominate the match. A great deal of possession did not lead to incisiveness yesterday, even if there were intermittent moments of alarm for City.

When a corner by Andrea Dossena after 23 minutes caused consternation, Albert Riera hit the loose ball at Micah Richards. The visitors had the most adept move before the interval. Stephen Ireland, often impressive for City, struck a long pass towards the left and Robinho carried play inside before returning the ball to the midfielder. Ireland was then deep inside the Liverpool area but his first attempt from the right was aimed at Pepe Reina and the rebound was directed wide.

Fernando Torres was, predictably, the most refined footballer in Benítez's side. He saw possibilities in the inside-right channel, where the visitors' steady left-back, Wayne Bridge, was made to suffer for a spell. Torres dummied him before breaking away but Riera squandered the time and space he enjoyed from the striker's cut-back by missing the target.

It was a Torres turn and pass that again exposed Bridge three minutes from half-time but the ensuing effort by Yossi Benayoun was misdirected. Lapses were far from being the key to the outcome and Hughes's team had an unfamiliar degree of concentration. This, after all, is a side that has been defeated in the league at West Bromwich and Stoke. The manager was so contented on this occasion that he made a single substitution and even that did not occur until the 88th minute. City's tactics were pragmatic, with Vincent Kompany pushed upfield to stop Javier Mascherano from setting Liverpool in motion. The visitors' midfielder then did rather more than that by playing a part in City's goal.

In the 49th minute Robinho found him towards the left with a fine pass and Kompany set up Bellamy for a shot that took a deflection off Alvaro Arbeloa before spinning into the net. Liverpool did at least summon the firepower to respond.

With 78 minutes gone, the substitute Fabio Aurelio put Benayoun in possession on the left and his low cross was miskicked by Torres to set up Kuyt to score. Benayoun demanded a parry from Shay Given with eight minutes left and the Israeli followed up for a header that came off the hand of the visitors' centre-back Richard Dunne. It was no penalty and Liverpool were never to receive the stroke of luck essential for victory in a side that could not outclass stubborn opponents.

Liverpool: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Dossena (Aurelio 76), Benayoun, Mascherano (Babel 83), Lucas, Riera (El Zhar 63), Torres, Kuyt.
Subs Not Used: Cavalieri, Hyypia, Ngog, Spearing.

Booked: El Zhar.

Goals: Kuyt 78.

Man City: Given, Richards, Dunne, Onuoha, Bridge, Zabaleta, De Jong, Kompany, Ireland, Bellamy, Robinho (Caicedo 88).
Subs Not Used: Hart, Garrido, Vassell, Evans, Elano, Weiss.

Booked: Dunne, Kompany.

Goals: Arbeloa 51 og.

Att: 44,259

Ref: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire).

 

FC Copenhagen 2 Manchester City 2    Away Goals Bonus
Thursday 19th February 2009 : Stanley Voller for GYKO in Copenhagen

Manchester City let in a last-minute equaliser as they drew 2-2 away to Danish side FC Copenhagen in the first leg of their UEFA Cup round of 32 tie.

City welcomed back both Richard Dunne and Shaun Wright-Phillips following suspensions, while record signing Robinho was fit to take his place in the starting line-up.
The home side threatened early on as Cesar Santin found space down the left, but his pull-back across goal was cleared.

By now snow was falling steadily at the Parken Stadion, with the Danes continuing to make most of the running, although Wright-Phillips was starting to show up well on the right.

Midway through the first half Wright-Phillips had an opening 12 yards out, but his weak shot was blocked by keeper Jesper Christiansen.

Soon after William Kvist fired over when well-placed in the City area and just before the half-hour mark City took the lead.

Nedum Onuoha strode forward from the back and shot weakly towards goal from just inside the area, only for Christiansen to fumble the effort and allow the ball to roll into the back of the net.

Pablo Zabaleta wasted a good opening right on the stroke of half-time, dribbling a shot past the near post after running clear down the right.

Wright-Phillips tested Christiansen in the first minute of the second half, as City looked to build on the boost of holding a one-goal lead.

However, they were pegged back with 56 minutes on the clock as Kvist's left-wing corner was met by the unmarked Ailton Almeida and he powered a header past Shay Given from eight yards out.

City were back in front on the hour as Wright-Phillips played the ball in from near the right corner flag and Stephen Ireland met the cross with a perfect low finish inside Christiansen's near post.

The lively Craig Bellamy then sliced a shot wide as City began to punch holes in the home defence.

Robinho placed a shot straight at Christiansen when he was clean through eight minutes from time and the keeper then denied Wright-Phillips, before the hosts struck right at the death.

Dame N'Doye was allowed time and space on the right and his cross was headed home by the unmarked Martin Vingaard to make the final score 2-2.

FC Copenhagen: Christiansen, Pospech, Laursen, Antonsson, Wendt, Kvist (Vingaard 60), Kristensen, Norregaard (Gronkjaer 70), Hutchinson, Almeida, Santin (Ndoye 59). Subs Not Used: Coe, Niclas Jensen, Nordstrand, Jorgensen.

Goals: Almeida 56, Vingaard 90.

Man City: Given, Onuoha, Richards, Dunne, Bridge, Zabaleta, Kompany, Ireland, Wright-Phillips, Robinho (Caicedo 89), Bellamy. Subs Not Used: Hart, Elano, Vassell, Garrido, Evans, Weiss.

Booked: Bellamy, Richards.

Goals: Onuoha 29, Ireland 61.

Att: 30,159

Ref: Pavel Kralovec (Czech Republic).

Portsmouth 2 Manchester City 0    Poundstretcher Blues
Saturday 14th February 2009 : Karl Hatton for Get Your Kits Out at Fratton Park

If Portsmouth could have hand-picked opponents for a moment of the season so loaded with importance, the list would surely have started with Manchester and ended with City. Here, in a 90-minute exhibition of drabness, was a perfect explanation as to why Mark Hughes's team have won only once away from home all season.

Portsmouth were able to get their game together without too much stress, and gradually find a better balance of confidence and concentration than they had under the recently deposed Tony Adams. Glen Johnson and Hermann Hreidarsson scored the goals that lifted the team four points clear of the relegation zone and brought a glow to a game that had been immensely hard work until the 70th minute.

Fratton Park's winter pitch might be marginally smoother than the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua, but with an hour gone it was hard to escape the feeling that if this was a cricket match, it would have been put out of its misery.

The calibre of passing was dismal. Here was a team struggling for confidence, low on ideas, bereft of motivation, and looking muddled. And that was just Manchester City. For all the scrutiny on Portsmouth's woes, so ordinary were the visitors it was hard to detect who had done their January window shopping sniffing around Versace, and who had really been to Poundstretcher.

The Brazilian pair of Robinho and Elano, so sparkling for Brazil in midweek, barely unnerved a Portsmouth defence that had made soft goals a speciality of late. David Nugent caused plenty of alarm for City, but there was no clinical edge.

The game was crying out for creative spark and it came, with 20 minutes to go, from Portsmouth's right back. Glen Johnson drove at City with a virtuoso dribble, beating Given at the second attempt with a classy, drilled finish.

Five minutes later, Portsmouth were celebrating even more vociferously as Hermann Hreidarsson powered a header into the top corner. The Fratton faithful know all too well that they need all the goals they can get to make sure good work is not undone by mistakes at the back.

But with David James celebrating a record breaking Premier League appearance, the story ended happily for Pompey. James was largely under-worked, but did produce one storybook save six minutes from the end to claw out Ched Evans's close-range header.

Manchester City  1 Middlesbrough 0       A Given Win
Saturday 8th February 2009 : Alistair Pheasey for GYKO at the COMSTAD