robinho jewel helps city to sparkle published: friday 7 november 2008, 0.55cet manchester city fc 3-2 fc twente a wonderful robinho goal lit up a memorable tie in manchester, but mark hughes's side were almost made to pay for some lackadaisical defending.
manchester city fc showed brilliance at one end and sloppiness at the other but emerged with a 3-2 victory in their opening uefa cup group a game against an fc twente side coached by former england manager steve mcclaren.
constant drama shaun wright-phillips put city ahead after two minutes, but having handed eljero elia a 17th-minute equaliser, the premier league team looked to have lost their way until robinho scored their sensational second goal. substitute benjani mwaruwari put them 3-1 up and though the city of manchester stadium crowd were kept on their toes as rob wielaert responded for twente, the hosts held on.
nip and tuck city made the breakthrough with the first meaningful attack of the match, wright-phillips bamboozling the twente defence with a quick exchange of passes with jô before putting a clean, low strike past sander boschker. mark hughes's men surrendered their advantage though, with elia chasing a long ball through a static city defence to send a crisp shot beyond joe hart.
wonderful strike city's nerve seemed to be failing them, yet they rallied after the restart with a wonderful strike from robinho restoring their lead. the brazilian collected stephen ıreland's ball and let fly a dazzling shot past the diving boschker from the left-hand corner of the penalty area. benjani made it 3-1 three minutes after coming on for his first appearance of the season, though his low strike took a cruel deflection off douglas.
huysegems miss ıt was the cue for city to doze off once more, with wielaert being given all the time in the world to position himself to nod in a 65th-minute corner. robinho rattled the post twice in a thrilling finale, before twente substitute stein huysegems blasted over the bar when well-placed in the final minute.
