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Published: Wednesday April 15, 2009 MYT 2:02:00 PM

Man City needs Robinho to regain form

LONDON: Manchester City desperately needs Brazilian striker Robinho to regain form and help overturn the team’s 3-1 first leg deficit against Hamburg to reach the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup.

The most expensive signing by an English club, Rohinho is now on course to be the flop of the season.

After scoring 12 goals in City colors in the first half of the season, the former Real Madrid striker hasn’t hit the target since.

City manager Mark Hughes, whose job could be on the line if the club has yet another season of failure, gave Robinho a break by dropping him to the bench for Sunday’s Premier League match at home to Fulham. The striker went on in the second half but made little impact as City lost 3-1.

Now he has a golden chance to make up for his poor recent form when City, which has not won a major title since 1976, takes on Hamburg on Thursday with two goals to make up.

In the other quarter-finals, the other German survivor, Werder Bremen, takes a 3-1 advantage to Udinese; Shakhtar Donetsk visits Marseille with a 2-0 lead and Dynamo Kiev and Paris Saint-Germain are 0-0.

Robinho’s arrival at Man City, considered the world’s richest club after being bought by a business consortium from Abu Dhabi, gave the fans hope that decades of failures were coming to an end with the team so long in the shadow of multiple Premier League and 2008 Champions League winner Manchester United.

But promising early results were followed by a slump and City, despite its wealth, slipped close to the relegation zone before a modest revival in the league standings.

The UEFA Cup appeared a realistic route to a trophy but last week’s 3-1 loss in Hamburg has given City a tough second leg at the City of Manchester Stadium on Thursday.

Goalkeeper Shay Given, hired from Newcastle in the January transfer window, sees the potential at the club but calls on fans to be patient.

“In years to come I think this will be a great club to be involved with,” the Irish ‘keeper said. “People automatically feel we are a top-six team because we are one of the richest clubs in the world. They are comparing us with Chelsea when Roman Abramovich took over but they were already a top four side who just added more quality to make them champions.

“It is going to take us longer. Everybody is impatient and want us to be there yesterday but we have got to put the building blocks in place.”

The talented but inconsistent Robinho was seen as such a building block, and City badly needs him to regain his form, otherwise its UEFA Cup ambitions will be over.

Hamburg will be without defenders Collin Benjamin and Guy Demel, who both have thigh injuries, and Brazilian midfielder Alex Silva is still recovering form a muscle tear and is a doubtful starter.

Long-term absentees Bastian Reinhardt, Thimothee Atouba, Romeo Castelen and Maxim Choupo-Moting are still out while Albert Streit and Mickael Tavares are both ineligible.

“We laid down a good foundation in the first leg,” team captain David Jarolim said. “Now we need to concentrate and advance to the semifinals.” An all-German semifinal beckons if Bremen holds on to its advantage against Italy’s Udinese.

But Werder Bremen’s playmaker Diego, who scored twice in the first leg, is doubtful because of a right-thigh injury which also forced him to miss Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Bayer Leverkusen.

“We have the most important game of the year in Udine and I hope I can help the team,” he said.

The last Italian club left in this season’s European competitions, Udinese has multiple injuries. Captain Antonio Di Natale is out long term with torn knee ligaments, defenders Andrea Coda, Damiano Ferronetti and midfielder Fernando Tissone are also missing while midfielder Mauricio Isla is being checked out for what appears to be a bruised right foot.

Udinese struggled against nine-man Reggina on Sunday before Antonio Floro Flores scored two late goals.

“We made a lot of sacrifices to get to this point and we should be able to compete in both the league and the UEFA Cup,” coach Pasquale Marino said. “We’ve got to do what we did in the second half (of the first leg). We’ve got to move the ball around quickly.”

The other semi-final could be a matchup of two French teams or two from Ukraine. Having replaced Lyon at the top of the French league, Marseille at least has renewed confidence as it tries to overturn Shakhtar’s 2-0 first leg lead and comes off a 4-1 victory over Grenoble.

Unlike Marseille, PSG doesn’t have home advantage and goes to Kiev knowing that a defeat means elimination. - AP

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