City hope for home inspiration to rein in Hamburg

Manchester City FC will be relying on their excellent home form to reach the UEFA Cup semi-finals at Hamburger SV's expense, having jeopardised their qualification chances with a 3-1 first-leg reverse on German soil.

1) Match background

Previous meetings:
Hamburger SV 3-1 Manchester City FC
2008/09 UEFA Cup quarter-final first leg

• City shot into the lead at the Arena Hamburg after Stephen Ireland struck with just 35 seconds on the clock, but they spent the rest of the game on the defensive as the hosts mounted an impressive comeback. Joris Mathijsen swiftly restored parity and just after the hour Piotr Trochowski converted from the penalty spot following a Micah Richards handball, leaving José Paolo Guerrero to complete the scoring with eleven minutes left.

City's record against German clubs: P6 W2 D1 L3
City's record at home against German clubs: P2 W1 D1 L0
Hamburg's record against English clubs: P11 W4 D2 L5
Hamburg's record away against English clubs: P4 W0 D1 L3

• City have only come back from a two-goal deficit once to progress in UEFA competitions and that was in a quarter-final tie. In the 1970/71 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, they lost 2-0 away to KS Górnik Zabrze but won the return by the same scoreline to set up a replay. The English side then triumphed 3-1 in Copenhagen before losing 1-0 in both legs of their semi-final against Chelsea FC.

• Aside from those two games, City have twice gone into second legs of European ties adrift – and have progressed on both occasions. In the 1969/70 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup semi-finals, City were beaten 1-0 at FC Schalke 04 before winning 5-1 at Maine Road. They went on to claim their only European trophy by edging Górnik 2-1 in the final in Vienna. This season, they needed penalties to see off FC Midtjylland in the second qualifying round after both legs finished 1-0 to the away sides.

• Hamburg have only come close to surrendering a two-goal first-leg advantage on one occasion, in the 1967/68 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals. The German side beat Olympique Lyonnais 2-0 in the first meeting only to loss the return in France by the same margin. A third 2-0 scoreline in a replay at Hamburg's Volksparkstadion saw them progress.

• City have never lost a home game against a German side, while Hamburg have never won an away match in England.

• Two of Hamburg's most painful European defeats have come against English sides. The 6-0 loss at Liverpool FC in the second leg of the 1977 UEFA Super Cup was their heaviest European defeat to date, while Nottingham Forest FC denied them in the 1979/80 European Champion Clubs' Cup final with a 1-0 win at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid.

• City have already faced German opponents once this campaign. Having lost their previous two competitive games on German soil, they beat Schalke 2-0 in Gelsenkirchen in this season's UEFA Cup group stage.

• City lost 4-2 on aggregate against VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1978/79 in their only previous UEFA Cup quarter-final appearance.

• Hamburg's Dutch coach Martin Jol, once a midfielder with English sides Coventry City FC and West Bromwich Albion FC, knows City well from his time in charge of Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur FC. He coached Spurs in six league games against City and won all of them, home and away.

• Jol also coached Tottenham in four Premier League games against City manager Mark Hughes while the latter was at the helm of Blackburn Rovers FC. Spurs won two of these matches, with the other two ending 0-0.

• Prior to the first leg against City, Jol had lost all three of his European games against English clubs – one as a player and two as a coach. On the losing side during his playing days when ADO Den Haag went down 3-1 to West Ham United FC in the 1975/76 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, his RKC Waalwijk charges were beaten 2-0 away and 1-0 at home by Bradford City AFC in the 2000 UEFA Intertoto Cup.

• Jol and Hughes are both former FC Bayern München players. Jol represented the Bavarian giants in the 1978/79 season while Hughes was in Munich from 1986 to 1988.

• Hughes was only involved in one tie against a German side during his playing career, when FC Barcelona met KFC Uerdingen 05 in the 1986/87 UEFA Cup. The Catalan outfit won 2-0 at home and 2-0 in Germany, with the Welshman among the scorers.

• Before City's trip to Hamburg, Hughes's only previous meetings with a German side as a coach came with Blackburn in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup Round of 32. Rovers went out against Bayer 04 Leverkusen after losing 3-2 in Germany and drawing 0-0 at home.

• Belgian defender Vincent Kompany knows Hamburg well, having spent three seasons at the club prior to last summer's move to the City of Manchester Stadium. Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong, for his part, left Hamburg for City during the winter transfer window but is ineligible to play for his new side in the UEFA Cup.

• Hamburg's Thimothée Atouba (Tottenham 2004-05) and Guy Demel (Arsenal FC 2000-01) also have experience of English football, though the latter never played a Premier League game. Atouba was on the winning side in both his games against City.

• City's Berti Glauber (1. FC Nürnberg 2005-08) and Martin Petrov (VfL Wolfsburg 2001-05) have both played in Germany.

• City forward Benjani Mwaruwari and Hamburg striker Mladen Petrić were team-mates at Zurich-based Grasshopper-Club in the 2001/02 season. Petrić and City midfielder Felipe Caicedo won the Swiss Cup together at FC Basel 1893 in the 2006/07 season.

• Hamburg, fourth in the Bundesliga in 2007/08, topped UEFA Cup Group F and beat NEC Nijmegen comfortably in the Round of 32, winning 3-0 in the Netherlands and 1-0 at home. They then ousted Galatasaray AŞ to reach the quarter-finals, drawing 1-1 at home and winning 3-2 in Istanbul.

• City qualified for the UEFA Cup through the UEFA Fair Play system and reached the Round of 32 as Group A winners. They beat FC København to reach the Round of 16, drawing 2-2 in Copenhagen and winning 2-1 at home, but needed a penalty shoot-out to overcome Aalborg BK in the next round after trading 2-0 home wins, eventually prevailing 4-3 on spot-kicks in Denmark.

• The winners of this tie will meet either Werder Bremen or Udinese Calcio in the semi-finals on 30 April and 7 May, playing the second leg at home. The victors of that semi-final will be the nominal away side in the final at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in Istanbul on 20 May.

Penalties:-
City: City have won both of their UEFA competition penalty shoot-outs, winning 4-2 at Midtjylland in this season's UEFA Cup second qualifying round and then triumphing 4-3 against that club's fellow Danes Aalborg in the Round of 16.

Hamburg: Hamburg's only UEFA club competition penalty shoot-out to date ended in defeat by Sparta Rotterdam, the German club losing 4-3 on spot-kicks after a 2-2 aggregate draw in the 1985/86 UEFA Cup first round.

2) Form book

City: This is City's 16th UEFA Cup game of the season and they are the only side left in the competition to have competed in the qualifying phase. They are unbeaten in their last five UEFA Cup home games, recording four wins and a draw.

Last five European games: DWWLL
Last five European home games: WWDWW
Top scorer (Europe): Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland (3)

Last five domestic games: WLWLL
Last five domestic home games: WWWWL
Top scorer (Premier League): Robinho (11)

Hamburg: The German club are appearing in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals for a fifth time (W2 L2). They have won all five of their UEFA Cup away games this season, scoring at least twice in each. They have lost only once in their last 12 European away fixtures.

Last five European games: WWDWW
Last five European away games: WWWWW
Top scorer (Europe): Ivica Olić (7)

Last five domestic games: LWWWL
Last five domestic away games: LWLWL
Top scorer (Bundesliga): Mladen Petrić (10)

Disciplinary information:
City: Elano Blumer, Craig Bellamy, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta and Richards are within a booking of one-match bans.

Hamburg: Jerome Boateng returns from suspension, while Guerrero, Jonathan Pitroipa and Frank Rost are within a caution of a one-match lay-off.

3) Who are...

City

Honours
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1969/70
• Domestic honours: 2 English titles, 4 FA Cups

Trivia
• City were founded in 1880 as St Marks (West Gorton), and were later known as Ardwick AFC before adopting their current name in 1894.

• The club are famous for their pale blue home shirts, but adopted black-and-red striped away kits in a nod to AC Milan at the suggestion of future manager Malcolm Allison.

• City fans' keynote song is the mournful ballad Blue Moon. The wistful lyrics are generally regarded as having special significance for a club used to dramatic turns of fortune.

Hamburg

Honours
• European Champion Clubs' Cup: 1982/83
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1976/77
• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2005, 2007
• Domestic honours: 6 German titles, 3 German Cups

Trivia
• Hamburg have played in the highest tier of German football since their foundation in 1919, the only team to have done so. They are also the only club to have been involved in every Bundesliga season to date.

• Iconic Hamburg striker Uwe Seeler was Germany's first Player of the Year in 1960. He scored 404 goals in 476 league games for the club between 1953 and 1972.

• From 16 January 1982 to 29 January 1983, Hamburg went unbeaten for 36 league games – a Bundesliga record which has yet to be broken.