"it will be a difficult game for us"

With Robinho, Pablo Zabaleta, Gelson Fernandes all out and now joined with Elano whose wife is experiencing complications with her pregnancy, Man City is facing a challenging task against Schalke 04 today.

Referring directly to the absence of Robinho, Mark Hughes said:

"Learning to play without him is something we have to do because we may have to rest him at times during the season. He's played every game since he came here and we need to look after him, but ideally we want him to get over his injury first."

Tactically Sparky gave clue that City would be satisfied with a draw:

"A draw would not be a bad result, if we win both homes games but pick something up away then you are in a good position to go through. Schalke will obviously be looking to get a positive result, but if we can get some points here and win at home then maybe seven points will be enough.

"Having to travel to Europe between big games is what the big clubs have to deal with, and that's what we are aspiring to.

"It will be a full house, with 60-odd thousand people, it should be a great occasion. We have to be ready because it will be a difficult game for us."

"We are missing three key players, so the option of resting players has been taken away from me to an extent. We had a positive result at the weekend, so we are looking to build on that leading into the derby.