In City’s second foly into Europe since 2003; they face needing to gain a result away from home from a lesser side to progress in the UEFA cup.
Vital Quotes:
Mark Hughes talks about the upcoming tie: “In the first leg they were able to defend the lead that they had, and they had a little bit of pace that enabled them to work the counter-attacks and it made it a difficult evening for us.
“The important thing for us is that we start better than we did two weeks ago. If we do that, and if we score early on then maybe Midtjylland will become anxious and we`ll look to capitalise on that.”
Mark talks also about the impact of new striker Jo: ‘Jo gives us more presence than maybe we had in the first game,’ Hughes admitted.
‘We don’t expect too much too soon but he is looking forward to kick-starting his career with us.’
FC Midtjylland Team News:
Taken from their official site: ‘It is the same as startopstilling over there, so the goal is Lasse Heinze, the four in the defence is Kolja Afriyie, Danny Califf, Winston Reid and Christopher Poulsen. På midtbanen er det Adigun Salami, Mikkel Thygesen og Gheorghe Florescu med Danny Olsen og Jonas Borring på kanterne. On midtbanen is Adigun Salami, Mikkel Thygesen and Gheorghe Florescu with Danny Olsen and Jonas Borring at the edges. Helt fremme ligger Jude Nworuh.” Quite the promotion is Jude Nworuh. ‘
‘We have not so much to hide. Jeg er sikker på, at englænderne ville kunne regne sig frem til de fleste. I am sure that the English could count themselves forward to most. Eneste spørgsmål lå måske omkring valget af manden på toppen. The only question was perhaps about the choice of the man at the top. Skulle det være Jude eller Baba? Should it be Jude or Baba? Vi har valgt Jude, fordi han mere er dybdeløberen og angriberen af de to,” forklarede Thomas Thomasberg. We have chosen Jude because he is more dybdeløberen and the attacker of the two, ‘
Player to watch: Jude Nworuh
Jude Nworuh plays well or Danny Olsen who scored the goal at Eastlands with a fine finish are likely to cause city problems.
Manchester City FC Team News:
City welcome back Jo from the Olympics but there is still some doubt over whether Micah Richards will be risked against the danish side after suffering a heavy concussion when clashing heads with Tal Ben Haim.
City also welcome back Richard Dunne who although has not been suspended in Europe is now free to play for all City’s first team matches.
City still have long term injuries in Bojinov, Benjani and Vassell and so City only have three fit Strikers.
City are unable to field new signing Vincent Company as he was not registered in time to play. So Gelson Fernandes or Dietmar Hamann could take his place after as good a debut since Ali Bernarbia against Birmingham City at home in 2001.
Player to watch: Martin Petrov
As Lee Dixon showed on MOTD2 on Sunday night; our Bulgarian winger knows how to work a fullback to create space for himself to delivery a string of fine crosses.
Match Facts & Stats
The only match fact is played one game and lost that game.
Ref Watch:
Robert Malek(POL) – ply’s his trade in the Polish Football Federation. He received his FIFA badge in 2001, and was added to UEFA’s Premier List in January 2007. Since he received his international qualification he has been officiating a couple of international matches every year. Mostly he has been selected for minor matches like first round UEFA-Cup matches and Preliminary U-21 matches. Probably the game with the highest profile for Malek was the Euro 2008 qualifier Faroer – Italy in June 2007, a game luckily won by Italy (1-2).
Match Prediction:
After a very poor display at Eastlands I expect City to play much better with City winning the game. FC Midtjylland 0 – 2 MCFC. (1-2) on agg.
Next Fixtures:
Sunderland away on Sunday 31st August with a 3pm kick off.