Aalborg 2 - 0 City

• This has been written during extra time and before penalties. I stand by it whether we win or lose though.
  

• So much for Sparkyisation. This was, and how I hate these words, typical City. To collapse from a comfortable victory - and progression to the UEFA Cup quater-final - by conceding goals on 85 and 91 minutes is just sickening. Worse than the 3-2 loss against Fulham certainly, worse than the 8-1 probably. I felt worse over the Eriksson sacking, but that at lease was strung out over a few weeks. This was a one-two punch, painful not just because it was a surprise but also because, in a quite real sense, it wasn't a surprise at all. This is just what City do.

• It was almost as if the football Gods couldn't quite forgive us for what we did to a Danish side in September; and in sending us back to the scene of that robbery they were setting the stage for our downfall. It was worse than a mirror image of Midtjylland though - not only was the margin doubled but so were the stakes and the shock value too. All we had to do with five minutes left was not to concede twice; and we did. All we had to do was score once and the tie was over. But we couldn't, we didn't, and we're out.

• The first half was fine. We controlled the play, looked calm - never had too many chances but didn't look like conceding either. The second half started fine too. But then after about an hour it slowly started to turn away from us - we were giving the ball away, conceding chances and there was just a sense that this wasn't really meant to be happening. When Garrido should have given away a penalty with a foul on Johannson I started to worry. From then on it was a seige, and I started to think that one goal would bring two. We either needed to score, or wholly shut them out.

• We almost killed the tie: Robinho's shot from Ireland's cut back hit the bar. It is to his, and Wright-Phillips', and Ireland's discredit that that was our only good chance in the two hours of play. Aalborg certainly defended well - a team transformed from last week - but given the quality of our attacking play in recent weeks we should have at least made a few chances. Maybe with Craig Bellamy on the pitch we would have scored. But that's no great excuse. This wasn't Blanc and Desailly we were up against.