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City survive UEFA Cup fright

Jonas Borring of FC Mitjylland, in red, shoots as Ricard Dunne, right, and Vedran Corluka of Manchester City challenge during their UEFA Cup second round second leg qualification match in Herning, Denmark, on Thursday. PHOTO: EPA

Manchester City avoided a tragedy of Hamlet proportions against Denmark’s Midtjylland on Thursday after a last-gasp penalty shoot-out gave the English side a UEFA Cup lifeline.

It took until the 89th minute for their second qualifying round, second leg to burst into life when American defender Danny Califf headed the ball past his own keeper to level the aggregate at 1-1.

That was enough to see the English Premier side into extra-time and a penalty shoot-out in which keeper Joe Hart pulled off heroics to put City into the UEFA Cup first round.

Mark Hughes’ sise pressed early as Martin Petrov’s left-sided cross in the second minute was cleared by the Midtjylland defense. But City’s new Brazilian Jo was finding it difficult to make an impression on the damp surface and Blumer Elano looked ineffective.

At the start of the second half Mikkel Thygesen found a yard of space in the 62nd minute to sneak behind a flat-footed City defense to connect with a neat Simon Poulsen pass but he fluffed the finish.

The away side’s defense was looking even more ragged five minutes later when substitute Babajide Babatunde rose unchallenged to head the ball over the bar.

Shortly after, Hart had to be snappy to claim the ball from the feet of Babatunde, but the keeper was an observer when the striker was clear on goal in the 79th minute before slicing the ball wide.

Jonas Borring’s cross was turned over City’s bar from close range by Babatunde, who seemed fated not to score on the night.

And fate beckoned for the Danes a minute from normal time when a hopeful Michael Ball cross was turned into the net by Califf.

After a goalless extra time the heroic Hart, saved two spot kicks in the penalty shootout as City hobbled, rather than strode, into yesterday’s first round draw.

In other UEFA Cup ties FC Moscow beat Legia Warsaw 2-0 to advance 4-1 on aggregate and Hertha Berlin beat NK Ljubljana of Slovenia 1-0 to win 3-0 on aggregate

St Patrick’s Athletic of Ireland pulled off a surprise 2-1 win over Elfsborg of Sweden to earn a 4-3 aggregate victory.

Aston Villa were surprisingly held 1-1 by Hafnarfjordur of Iceland at Villa Park but the English side still advanced 5-2.

Napoli thrashed Albanian side Vllaznia 5-0 to win 8-0 on aggregate while VFB Stuttgart beat Gyori in Hungary to advance 6-2 on aggregate.

Hajduk Split were eliminated after losing 0-1 at home to Deportivo La Coruna.
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