City slump to defeat at Hamburg
Mark Hughes watched his side get dominated by Hamburg
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Thursday, 09, Apr 2009 09:56
Manchester City have fallen to a 3-1 defeat away at Hamburg in the first-leg of the Uefa Cup quart-final tie.
City got off to a sensational start as Shaun Wright-Phillips and Robinho combined to setup Stephen Ireland and the midfielder kept his composure to slot the ball home and give his side a dream start.
A partisan home crowd weren't quite for long though as their team pulled themselves together and went on the attack.
Shay Given was forced into making three great saves in the space of five minutes. First her kept out a shot from David Jarolim and then pushed away a Mladen Petric header which luckily for City was directed straight at Given.
The Ireland keeper then superbly saved point-blank from a Michael Gravgaard shot from just a couple of yards out. But from the resulting corner Hamburg were level as Dutch international Joris Mathisen headed home from the near post and Given was unable to keep the ball out this time despite getting fingertips on it.
City were lucky not to go behind when Jonathan Pitroipa saw his header loop over Given and come back off the bar.
Mark Hughes men were under the cosh, but luckily they had Given and he made another fine save from a long-range shot from Marcell Jansen.
It seemed like an absolute age since City were anywhere near the Hamburg goal before Daniel Sturridge found Craig Bellamy in the penalty area, but the striker's snap-shot was saved by Frank Rost.
Hamburg continued to dominate in the second-half and were awarded a penalty when Micah Richards used his hands to keep out Mathisen's acrobatic effort. Piotr Trochowski thumped the spot-kick past Given.
City were left with a mountain to climb in the home leg as Hamburg took a two goal lead when Jose Paolo Guerrero slotted the ball home after a low cross into the penalty area from Trochowski.