City vs Aalborg BK
UEFA Cup: Round of 16 First Leg
Venue: Eastlands
Date: Thursday, 12 March
Kick-off: 1945 GMT
Coverage: Live on ITV4, plus many internet streams which can be found on www.mancityfans.net
Fancy a punt?
The surprising news is City are favourites to lift the trophy according to the bookies! Not a single trophy in over 3 decades and somehow they think we are going all the way! I hope they are right, however, they have to be slightly bonkers to make us favourites. I remember Rodney Marsh saying that only a fool would bet on the outcome of a Manchester City match and I happen to think he is right. Good old Rodney, he said it just before he was sacked for his Tsunami/Beckham joke. I wouldn’t mind, but the joke was weeks old and everyone had already heard it!
Odds:
4-7 Man City, 3-1 Draw, 6-1 Aalborg
5-1 to win the whole competition with Ladbrokes
Who are you?
Aalborg BK are the current Danish Superliga Champions and can boast a 2-2 draw at the swamp this season as well as beating Celtic at home and drawing with them at Celtic park. This alone says that they do have quality in their ranks and can hurt us if we are anything below our best. After finishing third in their champions league group, they were transferred to the UEFA cup round of 32 where they were drawn against spanish team Deportivo La Coruna. AaB secured a spot in the round of 16 with impressive performances concluding in a 3-0 home win and a 3-1 away win.
Aab are currently 5th in their league and look to have no chance of retaining their title as they are 16 points behind our last UEFA Cup opponents FC Copenhagen. They have played 19 league games this season so far and have 7 wins, 6 draws and 6 losses. Therefore the UEFA cup seems to be their main priority this season, lets hope City send them packing.
Come on you Blues:
City have only lost once in 9 UEFA cup games this season and if truth be told, we have not exactly set the competition alight. The main highlight being the excellent away win Schalke. City’s home form is very good and we need to impose ourselves right from the off and try and take a good lead into the second leg. We are guilty of missing some easy chances of late and need to make sure we pop the ball in the onion bag when the opportunity comes our way. No doubt we will be biting our fingernails and praying to “whomever” after 180 minutes of the tie. It just wouldn’t be city any other way.
Ones to watch:
CITY
Stevie and Shaun are always good to watch. What, with Superman is having the season of his dreams and Shaun coming home and showing some good form, especially last time out against the Villa.
AAB
Kasper Risgård is their goalscoring defensive midfielder and is a threat at set pieces, something we always struggle with!
City Line up will probably be:
37. Given
2. Richards
4. Onuoha
22. Dunne
25. Bridge
33. Kompany
5. Zabaleta
8. SWP
7. Ireland
10. Robinho
20. Caicedo
Subs:
1. Hart
36. Berti
30. Logan
19. Gelson
11. Elano
9. Bojinov
24. Evans
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