UEFA Cup Round-up: 12/3

Dmac · 03-12-2009, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sky Sports

UEFA Cup Round-up: 12/3

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Manchester City have put one foot in the Uefa Cup quarter-finals after a comfortable 2-0 first leg win over Danish side Aalborg at Eastlands.

The two sides meet again next Thursday in Denmark but Mark Hughes will be delighted with his side's performance and they will enter the away leg with confidence in their two-goal lead.

Felipe Caicedo opened the scoring after just eight minutes when he brilliantly turned on Michael Jakobsen and slotted past the despairing keeper to give City the dream start they were looking for.

There were chances at either end in the aftermath of the goal, with Robinho a constant threat for the home side and Caca making Shay Given work in City's goal. But City doubled their advantage on 30 minutes through Shaun Wright-Phillips' impressive solo effort.

Holders Zenit St Petersburg wobbled in their defence after a dramatically late first-leg defeat at Udinese, while Marseille recorded a home win over European giants Ajax in the last 16 of the Uefa Cup.

Russian outfit Zenit shot to prominence with their final victory over Rangers last season, but manager Dick Advocaat's will now be forced to come from behind if they are to keep hopes alive of retaining their trophy.

Udinese, the last remaining Italian club in the competition, left it late but earned a 2-0 win to leave Zenit with it all to do in the second leg.

Elsewhere, Marseille and Ajax, both European Cup winners, met and it was the French side who will take an edge into the return meeting after a slender 2-1 win.

Hamburg manager Martin Jol saw his side continue to struggle with a share of the spoils with Galatasaray, however, CSKA Moscow, who won the tournament in 2005, showed their pedigree when defeating Shakhtar Donetsk, and Werder Bremen - fresh from stunning AC Milan in the final 32 - downed St Etienne.

Dynamo Kiev earned an initial advantage in their all-Ukraine tie with Metalist Kharkiv, while the outright winners of last season's Intertoto Cup, Braga, held in-form Paris St-Germain to a goalless stalemate in France.

A 2 goal advantage should be enough for City to go through to the quarters, does anyone think they could actually win it?

Tommy Platinum · 03-13-2009, 12:35 AM

I don't see why not to be honest. Bremen are looking good.

James Deuce · 03-13-2009, 12:40 AM

Yeah, out of all the teams I want City to win, just because really. They have the skill and talent level to go all the way. Like Tommy said, I don't see why not.

Dmac · 03-13-2009, 06:35 AM

Surprised that Robinho didn't score in a game where they scored 2 to be honest.

My boss who's a City fan doesn't like him, when he's good he's deadly, when he's not, he couldn't hit cow with a banjo.

Crocker · 03-13-2009, 08:01 AM

A good performance by City here and the 2 goal cushion should be enough to see us through.

Looking at the teams left we have as much chance as anyone of winning it, does a Manchester derby in the European Super Cup sound good?

Dmac · 03-13-2009, 09:24 AM

Well obviously that doesn't sound good to me... I need not explain why I feel.

Mark~ · 03-13-2009, 01:14 PM

How far City will go will depend on the draw.

If they can avoid teams like Bremen, CSKA Moscow and Marseille (who look very good at the moment), then they can easily reach the Final.

Dmac · 03-13-2009, 01:22 PM

I think Bremen will be the main team to avoid but you don't want the deadliness of Vagner Love running against you.

Marseille, I feel that they could handle to be honest.

UEFA Cup Round-up: 12/3

This is a discussion on UEFA Cup Round-up: 12/3 within the European Sports forums, part of the Sports Forums category; Originally Posted by Sky Sports UEFA Cup Round-up: 12/3 To view links or images in this forum your post count ...