DANNY Olsen made sure a difficult week for Manchester City became an embarrassing one as well. With manager Mark Hughes obliged to state publicly he would be staying amid talk of financial constraints and internal conflict he needed a victory in this Uefa Cup match to lighten his load.
Instead it was difficult viewing for the former Blackburn manager, especially with the Premier League campaign only three days away and a tough away game against Aston Villa to come. Olsen scored the winner in the 16th minute, leaving City with an u
phill task in the return match in Denmark in a fortnight.
The Danes grew in confidence and the only surprise was that they did not extend their 1-0 lead, especially in the first half. City had gone into the game on the back of a decent win against AC Milan in a friendly, but for long periods they looked like a team of strangers. Daniel Sturridge and Martin Petrov both hit the woodwork but Hughes was forced to listen to his side being jeered off at the end.
The crowd were stunned into silence when Midtjylland took the lead following a mistake by skipper Richard Dunne. He lost possession to Jonas Borring, who released Mikkel Thygesen. He played the ball into Olsen and he rattled a shot into the corner to give them what could prove to be a vital away goal.
Manchester City: Hart, Corluka, Richards, Dunne, Ben-Haim, Elano (Etuhu 69), Johnson, Gelson, Petrov, Caicedo (Bojinov 64), Sturridge.
Midtjylland: Heinze, Afriyie, Califf, Reid, Poulsen, Borring, Florescu, Thygesen, Olsen (Madsen 73), Salami (Flinta 84), Nworuh (Babantude 55).
Referee: B Rafati (Ger).
Att: 17,200
The full article contains 289 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
