Relive a European night at the Etihad that few have forgotten...
“City fans love it when we are the underdogs, and we were certainly that in this game...”
The words of Nedum Onuoha, certainly on this occasion, have more than a ring of truth about them.
Having reached a major European competition quarter-final for the first time since 1979, there was plenty of excitement when the Blues progressed to the last eight of the UEFA Cup.
It had been an epic journey taking in the Faroe Islands, Denmark, Germany, Cyprus, Holland, France and Spain that would total 16 matches all told in Europe that season.
SV Hamburg were next up and Mark Hughes’ team knew there was a real possibility of going all the way to the final.
The German side, managed by former Tottenham boss Martin Jol, would host the first leg and when City took the lead at the Volksparkstadion inside the first minute, it was hard to imagine a better start.
But this was a well-oiled Hamburg side and the Bundesliga side recovered from that early blow and went on to win 3-1.
Hughes’ side knew a 2-0 second leg win would be enough to progress thanks to Stephen Ireland’s goal in Germany, and the City fans, encouraged by the Club, sent out a rallying call to make the Etihad a cacophony of colour and noise to try and get the Blues over the line.
The City fans did not disappoint and with a capacity 47,000 crowd inside the Etihad, flags, inflatables, and flares were everywhere as the home support were offered a tantalising glimpse of those famous European nights under the lights that clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal had waxed lyrical about for many years.
The atmosphere fairly crackled with electricity, energy and optimism that had begun with Sheikh Mansour’s takeover barely seven months before.
The early team news wasn’t good, however, with Shaun Wright-Phillips and Craig Bellamy ruled out with injury and Nigel de Jong unavailable due to his January transfer from Hamburg.
It looked like a tall order on paper, with Hughes’ new signings and inherited players still in the process of gelling into a side capable of winning silverware.
Then-Hamburg boss Martin Jol knew City well after three years with Spurs - and he also wasn’t best pleased with his Mancunian opponents…
“I remember winning in Hamburg after being a goal down inside one minute and the scorer was this boy who I didn't think was a regular in the team,” said Jol.
“I had a feeling when I saw the team-sheet that City weren’t taking that game 100% seriously, but of course they were.
“I must admit, City had frustrated me because they took Vincent Kompany for about £6m off me the previous August and then, a few months before this game, they came and took Nigel de Jong away as well!
“Nigel cost City about £18million, which was a big fee because he only had six months left on his contract at Hamburg.
“Kompany had been playing as a No.6 before I arrived and was young but highly thought of.
“He had been in and out of the team because Belgium were at the Olympics, but he was a big, big talent who we had sold cheaply in my opinion.
“City had new owners and strong buying power, so we knew we were up against a club who were rebuilding and had talented players.
“Aside from losing Kompany and De Jong, we sold Raphael van der Vaart to Real Madrid, so that is three big players gone from our starting XI and it wasn’t easy for us.
“Despite that, we were in the semis of the DFB-Pokal Cup – that’s the German FA Cup - as well as being fourth in the Bundesliga and in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup against City.
“Hamburg had struggled the year before, so we were doing really well in comparison to 12 months earlier and the fact that we took a 3-1 lead to the Etihad gave us a good feeling that we could see this tie over the line.
“Plus, at that time, English clubs rarely beat German clubs and during my time as Spurs boss, I’m fairly sure we beat City home and away for three seasons running.
“But you never know what’s going to happen, and we definitely weren’t over-confident because even though City weren’t anywhere near the level they are today, they still had some fantastic players with Richard Dunne, Kompany, Robinho, Elano, Sturridge, Bellamy and Wright-Phillips.
“We went into the game with a few injuries and suspensions, but we had a good forward line with Petric, Guerrero, Pitroipa and Olic.”
Nedum Onuoha recalls that game vividly.
The City Academy graduate would partner Richard Dunne in central defence, with Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta both taking on midfield roles.
The loss in Germany had left the Blues with a mountain to climb, but Onuoha says the City fans were a great leveller that evening.
“I remember after the first game, we were in a bit of a tight spot because they had been so much better than us with players like Olic up front – they were very good and though we’d been doing well in Europe that season, this felt like a marked step up and they took the game to us in that first leg,” he said.
“So, we’d lost 3-1 and that away goal was obviously important, but it wasn’t as though we could sit back and draw on our previous experiences or similar situations in Europe because the majority of us had never played in this sort of scenario before.
“It was more a case of reviewing the first leg with Mark and figuring out how to navigate through some of the problems they had given us. We knew we had to give a better account of ourselves for sure, but there was a lot of interest in the tie, and I always think City fans come ever more alive when we are the underdog and the fact Hamburg scored first in this game made our fans get ever louder – it was like, ‘ok, we’ve nothing to lose so let’s go for it’.”
The game had been just a couple of minutes old when Hamburg were denied a penalty after a high challenge by Dunne, but on 11 minutes, they did go in front as Guerrero slotted home after Olic’s first touch fell nicely into his path.
"The atmosphere was incredible"
Martin Jol
City were now 1-4 down on aggregate, the away goal had been snuffed out and Hughes’ side would need four goals to progress through to the semis. It had very quickly taken on the look of mission impossible.
“One thing I remember was my assistant being hit by this huge inflatable banana on the back of the head from behind our bench!” laughed Jol.
“It was crazy because I’d never seen them anywhere else, but they were everywhere inside the Etihad that night.”
With the home support roaring the Blues on and with bananas, flags and scarves waving among the din, just six minutes later, City equalised.
Elano had fired in a shot that struck Trochowski’s arm in the box - and, as soft as the decision seemed, the ref pointed to the spot . Elano made no mistake to level the scores at 1-1 and make it 2-4 on aggregate.
Game on.
“We went a goal up early on, but then Elano equalised – it was a rainy night, as it always was in Manchester when I seemed to visit – and the City fans were really up for it,” recalled Jol.
The noise cranked up another gear and Onuoha admits he’d never experienced anything like it.
“In terms of true fan enjoyment and player effort, we were as one, even though we’d gone behind when, lo and behold, we equalised five minutes later and it's back on again," he said.
“It’s the only game I played in where there were flares and blue smoke coming down from the stands – from both sets of fans – and when we scored, it felt bigger and more important because here we were, battling for a semi-final place in a major European competition.
“Some of those fans had been with us when the adventure started in the Faroe Islands, so it was a culmination of a long and fascinating journey and playing the second leg at home in Europe is, I’ve always felt, key because your fans can give you that little bit extra when you need it most and we had the opportunity to feel that in this game.”
Olic continued to be a thorn in the side of the City defence, but it was Elano who came closest to scoring next when, moments before the break, he struck a stunning 30-yard free-kick that smashed against the crossbar.
Skipper Dunne was living close to the edge and, already on a booking, was given a final warming for a clumsy challenge on Olic before the referee ended a thrilling first 45.
“I told my players to keep the ball on the ground and stay calm, but the City fans made it difficult because they were fantastic,” says Jol.
Kompany picked a yellow card moments after the re-start that meant he would miss the first leg of the semi-final, should City make it through.
Three minutes later, the Etihad erupted.
Ireland found Felipe Caicedo who sold Jansen a dummy, nicked it past Boateng and then placed a low shot past Rost to put City 2-1 up – cue pandemonium.
It was now 3-4 on aggregate in Hamburg’s favour, with one more goal needed to force extra time and a sky blue wall was enveloping the German side, so much so, that just three minutes later, City came agonisingly close to levelling the aggregate scores.
Boateng fouled Elano 25 yards out, just slightly left of centre.
As always, the Brazilian took a measured run up, whipped a curling free-kick over the wall only to see the ball smack against the left post and bounce away from goal, but a cross was sent in immediately, Rost only managed to palm it into the path of Caicedo who somehow missed the target with the goal at his mercy.
It was breathless stuff, all City and Hamburg were now the team hanging on.
Did the Elano woodwork strikes make Onuoha think it might not be our night after all?
“It depends how early it happens – if it happens very late in the game, maybe yes, you do think that way, but if it happens earlier, you think that because of the quality of the player, he might make a small adjustment and next time he’ll score,” says Onuoha.
“A shot against the woodwork doesn’t even register as a shot on target – but it means you nearly scored, and if you have almost scored, it gives you hope that you might do it again.”
On the hour-mark, this increasingly manic match saw Ireland thread a pass through to Caicedo who rounded Rost and rolled the ball into the empty net – only for the assistant referee to raise his flag for offside.
Chance after chance was created by City, but Hamburg hung on for grim life until the 75th minute when everything changed in their favour
Dunne collided with Petric and the referee had seen enough, producing a second yellow card and sending the City skipper off for an early bath.
“We had to defend really well in the second-half, but when Richard Dunne was sent off around 20 minutes from time, we felt we could definitely hold on and go through,” said Jol.
Hamburg responded with their best spell of pressure for more than an hour, but Shay Given made several fine stops to keep them at bay.
Then, on 86 minutes, Robinho’s sublime one-two left Micah Richards with a glorious chance from 10 yards – but the youngster went for broke and hammered his volley high and wide into the disbelieving masses behind the Family Stand goal.
“Micah was 20 and it was such a big moment, but the player he became wasn’t the Micah at that time and if it had come later in the career, he might have had more composure and put it away,” said Onuoha.
“They held on for another few minutes and that was that. We were out. I remember thinking how close we were to going through, but to lose your captain and your leader would have been a big boost to Hamburg, but we still created a couple of good chances after that.
“We won 2-1 with 10 men against a very good Hamburg side and I remember some of their players saying how much they had suffered in that game, so we gave it everything and our fans saw something very significant about their Club in Europe that night.”
For Hamburg boss Martin Jol, it was a relief to hear the final whistle and keep his fine record against City intact.
“We held on to go into the semis, but we knew we’d been in a game and as I say, the fans were incredible and made it that much harder,” he said.
“We played Werder Bremen in the semis and beat them 1-0 away in the first leg – it was a great result because they were the reigning Bundesliga champions at the time, but in the second leg, somebody threw a paper ball on the pitch and one of my players stood on it and mis kicked his pass back to the keeper, conceding a corner and from that, Werder scored!
“It’s a very famous moment in German football - we ended up losing 3-2 and went out on away goals.
“Shakhtar went on to win the final against Werder, but because we’d been knocked out, I think it helped us in a weird way.
“We won our final Bundesliga game with a late goal against Eintracht Frankfurt to qualify for Europe and had we been in the final a few days before, I don’t think we would have achieved that, so that’s something.”
City returned to domestic action, winning the next three Premier League games to guarantee there were no late flirtations with those fighting relegation.
Jol would stay a few more weeks in Hamburg after the season completed before accepting the job of head coach at Ajax and Onuoha remained for another year at City before joining Sunderland on a season-long loan. and eventually leaving the club he'd supported all his life.
The memory of that night against Hamburg, however, lingers on in the memories of both men – and the thousands who were part of a unique European night at the Etihad – maybe one of the best.
David Clayton
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