City tumble out of Europe
Elano scored once and hit the woodwork twice in City's 2-1 win on the night
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Thursday, 16, Apr 2009 10:28
Manchester City beat Hamburg 2-1 at City of Manchester Stadium, but go out of Uefa Cup 4-3 on aggregate.
City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan was in attendance and he won't have been pleased with the start his club made as they fell behind after just 10 minutes.
It was again the case of lacklustre defending which led to the Hamburg goal. First Wayne Bridge was outpaced by Jonathan Pitroipa and he put a low cross into the penalty area, which Richard Dunne failed to clear and the ball trickled to Paolo Guerrero and he slotted the ball past Shay Given.
City got back in the tie thanks to a very fortuitous penalty when an Elano shot hit Piotr Trochowski on the arm. The referee gave the spot-kick even though the Hamburg defender had turned his head away from the ball, had both arms to the side and made no deliberate effort to handle. Nonetheless, Elano stepped-up to score.
After a season full of a half empty Eastlands during European games, more than 47,000 fans attended the game this evening after the ticket prices were slashed. The City fans in attendance thought their side were back in the lead as they watched an Elano shot rattle back off the crossbar.
Felipe Caicedo had done very little for City upfront, but burst into life at the start of the second-half as he collected the ball in the Hamburg penalty area and then brilliantly cut inside the defender with his right-foot before placing the ball into the back of the net with his left-foot.
City were well and truly back in the tie and they were roared on by a boisterous home crowd. Elano struck the woodwork again with another terrific free-kick before Caicedo somehow lifted the ball over the bar from only a couple of yards out.
The Ecuadorian then thought he had got City back level on aggregate when he rounded Hamburg keeper Frank Rost and put the ball in the net. But the goal was correctly disallowed for off-side.
City captain Dunne was booked in the first-half and also made a number of other silly tackles. He was given his marching orders with 15 minutes left of the game for a challenge on Ivica Olic.
Given kept City in the game with a point-blank save from Olice and then Richards came really close to scoring at the other end moments later. The defender swapped passes with Robinho and found himself through on goal, but fired horribly over.
That was the closest City got and in the end Hamburg probably deserved to go through based on their first-leg performance.