Hamburg spirit impresses Gravgaard

Hamburger SV's Michael Gravgaard showed more than a mastery of the defensive arts during what often resembled a rearguard action by Martin Jol's side at Manchester City FC last night. The centre-back also displayed a command of the English vernacular – saying "it's never over until the fat lady sings" – as he told uefa.com how Hamburg had come prepared for the storming City fightback that materialised in Thursday's UEFA Cup quarter-final second leg.

No foregone conclusion
"Obviously it was a very hard game for us," said the 31-year-old Danish international, "but we knew it would be like that. Even if we came here with a good result from Hamburg, everyone can see what City did. We knew it was going to be tough and the City crowd and the City players made it so. The tie wasn't over and that's what you learn from these games in Europe – it's never over until the fat lady sings, as you say in English. But I think if you look at the two legs, we were five per cent better than City, and that's why we deserved to go through."

Near miss
Gravgaard manned the defences alongside Joris Mathijsen as Hamburg first increased their 3-1 first-leg advantage through José Paolo Guerrero, then saw that lead cut by strikes from Elano and Felipe Caicedo. When the second City goal went in after only 50 minutes, Hamburg risked being on the receiving end of the kind of glorious comeback they had engineered in winning 3-2 at Galatasaray AŞ in the previous round. "We had the same in Istanbul against Galatasaray, because we were down 2-0 and everyone thought it was over," continued HSV's January loan signing from French team FC Nantes. "But it's never over in Europe. That's our lesson for today, and perhaps we had the luck in getting through. It's one of the few defeats we've had and City gave all they could."

Cup double
That Hamburg denied their hosts a third score on the night, in a largely end-to-end contest, kept the visiting supporters dreaming of their club's first trophy since 1987. With just two defeats to show from 12 UEFA Cup games – in Manchester, and away to AFC Ajax in the group stage – Jol's charges can approach their semi-final against Werder Bremen, on 30 April and 7 May, with confidence. First, though, the small matter of next Wednesday's encounter with the same northern German rivals to decide which gets to the final of the German Cup. "We hope we can [win a trophy] but in football you never know what is going to happen," added the former FC København man. "I think we'll have some pretty close games against Werder and we'll have to see how we get through them."

Dream factory
The Bundesliga crown also remains within reach for a side sitting third in the table, three points off leaders VfL Wolfsburg. "We try to go as far as we can in all the competitions we participate in, and as long as there's a chance to go for them all, we'll do that," Gravgaard promised. "A European trophy would, of course, be a really nice one."