Manchester City Football Club News

• Nickname:Sky Blues
• Founded:1887
• Manager:Roberto Mancini

• Ground:City of Manchester Stadium
• Capacity:48,000

City's tempo concerns Hughes

03 Oct 2008 - 09:04:03

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Manchester City manager Mark Hughes thought his side's first-half display in Thursday's UEFA Cup clash against Omonia Nicosia was below-par but was more impressed with their performance after the break.

City had won 2-1 in Cyprus a fortnight ago but needed second-half goals from Elano and Shaun Wright-Phillips to finally see off their spirited opponents and seal a place in Tuesday's draw for the group stage of the competition.

Hughes said after the win: "I just made the point that maybe we needed to up the tempo and run around a little bit more, so that was the key to the half-time message, and thankfully they did.

"I felt the tempo of our play wasn't quite at the right level in the first half to shift them around. We talked before the game about spreading the play quickly and creating space to get our good players in key positions.

"We didn't really do that to any great extent in the first half. Second half though I felt we were a lot better in that respect and we fed the full-backs and created more space for the likes of Robinho and Shaun Wright-Phillips to get on the ball and cause problems for them."