Hamburg devours Man City 3-1

The rocky road of Manchester City's campaign took another downturn as Hamburg sent them home with a 3-1 loss in the first leg of their UEFA Cup quarter finals match-up. Throughout the balance of the domestic season, Mark Hughes side as shown an unnerving habit of dreadful play away from Eastlands and their trip to the historic German city was no exception as they meandered through much of the match in a nonthreatening daze. While the visitors were gifted a one goal lead through Stephen Ireland's strike without the service of Republic of Ireland 'keeper Shay Given the score could have hard to stomach.

After Robinho provision for Stephen Ireland's goal, the match took a wrong turn for the Citizens who were clearly out of sorts without the services of Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong. Following the early handicap Martin Jol's came storming back and before the ninth minute the match was level as poor marking allowed Dutch international Joris Mathijsen to send in Piotr Trochowski's corner. The quick pace of the match continued but through good fortune and the hosts finishing, it went to the break even. However Piotr Trochowski would create the winner nineteen minutes after the restart from the spot after Micah Richards was adjudged to handling his effort in the area. Sprinkled throughout the scoring were a number of sure-fire Hamburg goals that Shay Given denied. However down by one, the cutting stroke came with eleven minutes remaining as the Polish-born Piotr Trochowski extraordinary evening continued as left Micah Richards in his tracks before sending a cross that was sent in by José Guerrero to bring the match to a final 3-1 scoreline.