City buried in Hamburg

Posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 12:43 pm and is filed under News.

Manchester City’s trip to Germany for their UEFA Europa League quarterfinal away tie against FC Hamburg ended in defeat on Thursday evening, after the English side squandered an early one goal lead to go down 3-1 to the home team.

Stephen Ireland gave Manchester City the best possible start in their away fixture, scoring for his club within the first minute of play.

Hamburg returned the favour minutes later as Joris Mathijsen equalised. Manchester City remained level until after half time, when Piotr Trochowski scored Hamburg’s second off a penalty, before Jose Paolo Guerrero scored the club’s third goal.

“We threw it away,” Ireland told the AFP. “We got off to a great start, but we didn’t defend well and we weren’t getting back into our shape. Now we have to return the favour at our place. I think we can do to them what they did to us.”

A 2-0 victory at home would see Manchester City through the the semifinals of the 2009 UEFA Europa League, however a disappointing performance against an understrength Hamburg team suggests that England won’t have a representative in the UEFA Europa League semifinals.