Man City Scrape Through On Penalties
August 28, 2008 by CLDsport
Man City have beaten Danish side FC Midtjylland by the skin of their teeth this evening, needing a penalty shoot-out and some heroics from Joe Hart after being minutes away from UEFA Cup elimination.
Man City only qualified for the UEFA Cup via the Fair Play League last season, and their progress was almost ended this evening by little known side FC Midtjylland in Denmark.
With just minutes left on the clock, a disastrous own goal from defender Danny Califf cancelled out a first leg winner from Olsen. It was more than City deserved after a poor display from Mark Hughes men.
On a day that the club announced the re-signing of fromer winger Shaun Wright-Phillips from Chelsea, the team never once looked as though they were interested in this match.
On reflection, you can only feel sorry for the fans that travelled many miles to see City in action after this dire performance.
The 90 minutes was a scrappy affair throughout, but FC Midtjylland had planty of chances to finish this game off including three chances that fell to substitute Collins Babajide, but he failed to convert.
With City seemingly accepting that they were going out of the UEFA Cup, Califf’s own goal gave fresh hope to the travelling support. As the game moved into extra time, City did start to play more effectively against a dejected home side - who just minutes before had been favourites to go through.
Despite the extra 30 minutes, neither team could score again and the game moved into a penlty shoot-out. As Man City missed their third penalty, it seemed as though the better team may win after all, but keeper Joe Hart pulled a fantastic save out of the bag, diving to his right to claw Borring’s effort away. Hamann then scored to make it 3-2 to the visitors, before Hart once gain saved leaving Vedran Corluka to hit the winning penalty.
With wild celebrations on the pitch, Mark Hughes was seen leaving immediately, rushing down the tunnel with a somwhat disappointed look on his face. If I was the manager, I’d be feeling the same. City definitely did not deserve to go through tonight, and as a top class manager of a supposedly top team it must be extremely disappointing to see your team perform so terribly. It wouldn’t have been so bad if City had some passion for the game, but the truth is they looked as though they’d rather be anywhere else except in Denmark tonight.
City fans, I hope you are suitably disgusted with that performance. Anyone who defends it was surely watching a different game!
Meanwhile, Aston Villa managed a 1-1 draw with FH Hafnarfjordur. However, after being 4-1 up after the first leg there was little doubt that the home side would go through. 5-2 on aggregate, and job done.
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