Friday, 17 April 2009
Hughes targets seventh spot
Manchester City manager Mark Hughes believes the door to Europe for a second successive season is still ajar after his side were knocked out of the UEFA Cup by Hamburg on Thursday night.
It means City must keep their foot on the pedal as they are six points adrift of seventh in the Barclays Premier League with only six games remaining, three of which are at home.
He said: "We will try to get in to Europe by virtue of our league position. If we can continue our good home form we have a chance of being in the mix for seventh place."
Hughes, however, has taken great heart from their performance against the Bundesliga high-flyers, despite losing the quarter-final tie 4-3 on aggregate.
Goals from Elano - with a penalty - and Felipe Caicedo gave them a 2-1 victory on the night, but it was not enough after losing the first leg 3-1.
Hughes is calling for a similar spirit on Sunday when they face bottom side West Brom at Eastlands.
He added: "The players were very low in the dressing room, it was an emotional night. But we have another big game at the weekend.
"We have got to pick ourselves up. It is a case of making sure we recover, clear our heads and go again.
"It will be difficult to re-focus and get back to Premier League action but we will take encouragement from this performance against Hamburg.
"It is important now we have a really strong finish. One of the things we have to do is address our away form, which has not been good enough."
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