Hamburg v Manchester City (Uefa Cup QF, 1st leg)

Xavi6

Bollox

Diabhal Beag

This cameraman is terrible. Good peno

redout

That was a great penalty.

Pigman III

Complete stupidity on Richards part, nice finish.

SlickRic

stephen ireland again with a tackle on the edge of the area this time. he's f**king everywhere. and he f**king well needs to be right now. whatever praise he gets, he doesn't get enough.

Xavi6

Werder/Udinese -

2-0, Diego. An absolute cracker

EDIT: 3-0

yayamark

He'd get an Allstar in the GAA for that blockdown.

LuckyLloyd

Hmmm, the replay says it probably wasn't a penalty.

SlickRic

nice dive micah. could've at least waited until he was touched.

LuckyLloyd

Bellamy and Robinho needed to do better there...

Xavi6

Robinho crap again

Xavi6

We better give Petrov 10 minutes

SlickRic

Xavi6 wrote: »

We better give Petrov 10 minutes

good call. i forgot he was back. a bit of direct running instead of robinho's lazy dancing and dawdling might be what's needed.

edit: it looks like fernandes is coming on instead and 3-1...nasty.

Diabhal Beag

End of tie

Xavi6

Oh balls.

All came from crap Benjani.

LuckyLloyd

Oh dear. Banjani screws up at one end, and they go right down the other end and punish ye for it. Great cross and finish.

Headshot

they may be trouble ahead, while city is losing and im hoping to win my bet

just let the city score

LuckyLloyd

Wow, Hughes looks livid.

Mikeyt086

Killer goal. Robinho needs to show up at Eastlands next week.

Given, Dunne and Ireland cant do it all!

Xavi6

Trockowski has been fantastic for them. Goal and 2 assists.

LuckyLloyd

Why did Spurs sack Martin Jol again?

LuckyLloyd

Super challenge there from Dunne to prevent the fourth.

Xavi6

FFS, fucking Gelson :rolleyes:

LuckyLloyd

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Why did Spurs sack Martin Jol again?

two 5th placed league finishes in a row just was'nt good enough :rolleyes:

Xavi6

Werder/Udinese -

3-1 - Quagliarella

LuckyLloyd

The ref has been excellent imo.

Mikeyt086

Ive really enjoyed watching this match.

LuckyLloyd

Another lung bursting run from Ireland with 90 mins on the clock - if Robinho could have picked him out...

LuckyLloyd

Mikeyt086 wrote: »

Ive really enjoyed watching this match.

Aye, it's been a good game for the neutral. Hamburg have impressed me. Didn't give a **** about the first minute concession. Simply pulled up the socks and got on with it.

Xavi6

Well that was crap

Headshot

Headshot wrote: »

already reminding me of last nights game (liverpool v chelsea)

great watch for the neutral alright

Mr.Nice Guy

Well City will have to do it at home but stranger things have happened. I wouldn't write the tie off just yet...

LuckyLloyd

Well, going to be a tall order for City now. Poor team effort. The team lacks leaders I think, and is very naive tactically. Also, basic stuff like defending set pieces, tracking runs and keeping a good shape defensively looks beyond them. After such a dream start, it really was a wasted opportunity.

However, Ireland turned in a phenomenal display. I'm struggling to remember a better 90 mins of football from an Irish footballer since Keane against France in September 2005...

Dunne and Given can also hold their heads up high, but the rest need to look at themselves in the mirror.

Xavi6

18 corners against! They knew our weakness and went for it.

eirebhoy

I thought Hughes' midfield at Blackburn of Reid, Dunn, Pedersen and Bentley was attacking but that midfield tonight was taking the biscuit.

x in the city

City haven't won an away game in the league since 31st Aug, and in Europe since Sept when they beat Sunderland and Nicosia respectively.

That's amazing, there's no way in the world Hughes will be in charge next season.

if the had a decent away record they would be up near the UEFA places now

bigstar

x in the city wrote: »

City haven't won an away game in the league since 31st Aug, and in Europe since Sept when they beat Sunderland and Nicosia respectively.

That's amazing, there's no way in the world Hughes will be in charge next season.

if the had a decent away record they would be up near the UEFA places now

eh no we beat shalke away in nov. i think thats after september.

and as for hughes, were in a european q-final and still in with a chance of 7th in the league which would be our best finish since peter reid.

and six points away from 7th is near enough to Uefa places.

tonight was brutal. richards was awful given was class and ireland was everywhere.
we'll be better at home and i think theres a few goals to come against them

x in the city

bigstar wrote: »

eh no we beat shalke away in nov. i think thats after september.

and as for hughes, were in a european q-final and still in with a chance of 7th in the league which would be our best finish since peter reid.

and six points away from 7th is near enough to Uefa places.

tonight was brutal. richards was awful given was class and ireland was everywhere.
we'll be better at home and i think theres a few goals to come against them

This is a bit de ja vu with Sven, not a bad record by all accounts, but good enough for the Sheiks?

This is one of the reasons I detest foreign ownerships, look at the debacle at Hearts, I find it alarming City havent won away, seems they completely switch off once they leave eastlands.

Pighead

x in the city wrote: »

This is one of the reasons I detest foreign ownerships, look at the debacle at Hearts,

Not to mention Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea.

eirebhoy

Hughes' probably is thinking of Stephen Ireland as a central midfielder. It's a serious problem. I thought he copped on when he brought De Jong in and played him alongside another central midfielder with Ireland in there too. But last nights team was a disgrace for a manager at that level. Hughes just tried to fit in his best players. He should have played Fernandes (the only available central midfielder?) beside Zabaleta and leave one of the 4 main attackers on the bench.

Dave!

Wouldn't surprise me to see Robinho agitating for a move this summer tbh

bigstar

Dave! wrote: »

Wouldn't surprise me to see Robinho agitating for a move this summer tbh

hopefully

Headshot

bigstar wrote: »

hopefully

suprised at that ^^^

first yr in the PL he hasnt done that bad at all

Xavi6

eirebhoy wrote: »

Hughes' probably is thinking of Stephen Ireland as a central midfielder. It's a serious problem. I thought he copped on when he brought De Jong in and played him alongside another central midfielder with Ireland in there too. But last nights team was a disgrace for a manager at that level. Hughes just tried to fit in his best players. He should have played Fernandes (the only available central midfielder?) beside Zabaleta and leave one of the 4 main attackers on the bench.

Have you seen Fernandes play 90 minutes? Genuine question.

eirebhoy

Xavi6 wrote: »

Have you seen Fernandes play 90 minutes? Genuine question.

Xavi, he's a central midfielder. I don't care if he's coca cola championship standard a central midfielder was needed last night. Some sort of solidity is needed for the attackers to shine.

Xavi6

eirebhoy wrote: »

Xavi, he's a central midfielder. I don't care if he's coca cola championship standard a central midfielder was needed last night. Some sort of solidity is needed for the attackers to shine.

I'm sorry but Fernandes would have offered NOTHING to the team last night.

We played with a three man midfield. We played with a holding midfielder (Zabaleta). We played with a central midfielder (Ireland). We played with another player who has played in the centre numerous times this season (Wright-Phillips).

Our only other two viable alternatives were a headless chicken who cannot pass the ball to save his life (Fernandes) or a complete pussy who is afraid of his own shadow and rarely shows up (Elano).

We played with what we had, and I don't know many City fans who have complained about the starting line up.

eirebhoy

Just thinking of a team with similar players to Man City and I'd say last nights team was about as balanced as:

-- Keane --- Bent --- Pavl --

---

Modric

---

Lennon

---

Palacios

---

Put Essien in for Stephen Ireland in last nights team and I'd still say it was too unbalanced, certainly for an away match. But Ireland doesn't even compare to Essien in central midfield terms. He's an attacker to me like Scholes was 10 years ago.

Xavi6

eirebhoy wrote: »

Just thinking of a team with similar players to Man City and I'd say last nights team was about as balanced as:

-- Keane --- Bent --- Pavl --

---

Modric

---

Lennon

---

Palacios

---

Put Essien in for Stephen Ireland in last nights team and I'd still say it was too unbalanced, certainly for an away match. But Ireland doesn't even compare to Essien in central midfield terms. He's an attacker to me like Scholes was 10 years ago.

But that's an unfair comparison. Ireland wasn't playing the Essien role, Zabaleta was. Ireland was doing what Lampard does.

eirebhoy

Xavi6 wrote: »

But that's an unfair comparison. Ireland wasn't playing the Essien role, Zabaleta was. Ireland was doing what Lampard does.

I mentioned Essien because he's one of the best all round central midfielders in the world. I don't think City would have had any success with Lampard in for Ireland either. Lampard needs 2 central midfielders in there with him and classing SWP as a central midfielder again just makes me use the word unbalanced.

Xavi6

But we don't class SWP as a central midfielder. He can play there if we're desperate, and last night we were desperate. That's the bottom line.