City make hard work of Nicosia
Hughes sees his side progress... but not before some stern words
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Thursday, 02, Oct 2008 10:40
Manchester City progressed to the group stages of Uefa Cup with a 4-2 aggregate win over a stubborn Omonia Nicosia.
City won the second-leg 2-1 at Eastlands with goals from Elano and Shaun Wright-Phillips, although the Cypriots could have been proud of their contribution.
Leading 2-1 from the first-leg, Mark Hughes' men produced a lacklustre first-half display which was remarkable only for their poor passing.
The closest they came to breaking the deadlock was when Wright-Phillips and Stephen Ireland combined, but the final ball was just too long for Robinho.
Hughes must have had stern words for his players at the interval because they came out a different side in the second period with Jo coming close within seconds of the restart.
Three minutes into the second-half they did find a way through and it was the Brazilian Elano who made the difference after being set-up by his compatriot Robinho.
Wright-Phillips doubled their advantage just seven minutes later when he slammed home after receiving a fortunate deflection.
That made the tie safe, and City then produced some exhibition football but Nicosia gave themselves the slightest glimmer of hope when Rasheed Alabi headed in from a corner with 10 minutes to go.
City were still comfortable, however, and substitute Martin Petrov twice went close as they saw at the victory which sees them into the group stage.