Soccer Central

Manchester City took an early lead this evening as Stephen Ireland scored a lovely goal with a beautiful bit of play involving Robinho in the first minute of the match. The lead was rather short lived though, and although City started the match on the front foot in scoring such an early away goal; they finished the game with three goals conceded, and a two goal deficit to make up when Hamburg travel to Eastlands next Thursday.

The game could have gone a lot better for City, but then again they did score an important away goal, and City’s home form this season has been brilliant, so the club could yet make it into the UEFA Cup semi-final.

Robinho did set up a goal this evening, but aside from that he was fairly anonymous throughout the match, and had little to offer in the 89+ minutes after City’s one and only goal was scored.

Man City’s lead lasted just eight minutes this evening, and Trochowski ultimately converted his penalty calmly in the 64th minute, and Guerrero took his goal well to complete the scoring. City was far from perfect this evening, and was defensively incredibly poor. I imagine that the defensive line will be massively strengthened in the summer, and many millions will no doubt be spent in Man City’s quest to stop conceding so many goals. You can’t count on Robinho still being with the club next season either, and there’s a chance that they’ll be signing more attacking options also; defence should be seen as the club’s main priority though, and defensive changes definitely need to be made if Manchester City is to live up to its reputation of being the world’s richest club.

Any player in the world could be bought with the money that Manchester City has; big name players are likely to be signed this summer, and with more quality players brought into the club, Manchester City Football Club should be able to progress, improve, and perhaps even grab a Champions League spot within the next couple of seasons.

Manchester City will not become a top four club overnight, and there’s much work to be done before City is on a par with its main Manchester rival; Manchester City is a football club with massive potential though, and next week will be a true test of the current players character as the team tries to overturn a two goal deficit, and progress through into the final four of the UEFA Cup.

Man City has never reached a UEFA Cup final before, but the final is currently still within the club’s reach, and next Thursday Manchester City Football Club will play a very important 90 minutes of football.