Aldridge - City up for Cup

20 March 2009 14:24
Manchester City's chief operating officer Paul Aldridge says the club are feeling confident despite drawing Hamburg in the quarter-finals of the Uefa Cup. [LNB] Mark Hughes' men only scraped into the last eight on penalties on Thursday night following a 2-2 aggregate draw with Danish side Aalborg.[LNB]They now face Martin Jol's Bundesliga high-flyers and Aldridge admitted that it is not the easiest of draws.[LNB]"But there's eight good teams in the draw so whoever we pulled out it was going to be a tough ask at this round," Aldridge told Sky Sports News.[LNB]He believes the fact that City are away in the first leg will help Hughes' men.[LNB]Happy"I am sure Mark would have preferred that so we are happy with that part of the draw certainly," he said.[LNB]Asked if City were starting to think it might be their year after twice progressing on penalties so far in the competition, he replied: "Yes, we have always maintained that we are good enough to compete with all the teams in the competition and that's not changed.[LNB]"In fairness, everyone's talking about the penalty shoot-out but really over the two legs we were the far better team so we go home with great confidence."[LNB]The draw for the semi-finals has also been made, with City tackling either Werder Bremen or Udinese if they overcome Hamburg.[LNB] "Whoever out of those two teams is going to be difficult but I'm sure Mark will focus on the next one first," he said.[LNB]Far"We have maintained that we wanted to go as far as we can and that hasn't changed," he said.[LNB]"We will throw all the resources we can at it to try and go as far as we can."[LNB]Asked about the club's long European campaign to get to this point, Aldridge added: "Everyone's enjoyed it - I think the supporters have enjoyed it and everyone at the club's enjoyed it.[LNB]"We have made a lot of good friends on the way and I think for where the club intends to go in the future it has been good experience for us.[LNB]"So no, we wouldn't change anything at all."[LNB]

Source: SKY_Sports