Manchester City Football Club News

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

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

Samaras impresses Sven

26 Sep 2007 - 08:51:10

Click To Enlarge

Manchester City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson praised Georgios Samaras' attitude after the Greek striker marked his first appearance of the season with a last-gasp winner in the Carling Cup success against Norwich City.

The 22-year-old had been expected to leave Eastlands in the summer after enduring an inconsistent 18 months with the club, but impressed Eriksson by netting the only goal of the game against the battling Canaries.

"He took his chance, and I'm very happy for him because he's been very professional after he decided he wanted to stay," the Swede told City's official website.

"He's been very good in training, he's always stayed positive, so congratulations to him.

"We're relieved to get through and that's the most important thing. I can't say that we played excellent football, because I don't think we did that.

"However, it was the first time this 11 had played together, it's a clean sheet and we're through even if we can play a little bit better. Norwich fought, they had no pressure so could go out and express themselves, which they did.

"I had to give some players who have not played much the chance to perform, I think it's the right thing to do - but next time they have to do a little bit better. We should have played better than we did tonight.

"They learned a lot, and so did I, which is important to us for the future. We're going to do everything to go as far as possible in this competition, I can promise that to the fans."