Europa League qualifier: FC Timisoara v Manchester City
Only a few years back, a club of FC Timisoara’s stature would have been quietly confident after drawing Manchester City for a place in Europe’s second-tier competition.
But after spending a fortune on new acquisitions over the past three seasons, the Premier League club have forged themselves a fearsome reputation, and are now regarded as genuine contenders for every competition they enter.
The Europa League is no different. With James Milner having finally signed on the dotted line, along with the arrival of Italian star Mario Balotelli, manager Roberto Mancini has spent over £120million on new arrivals this summer alone.
Instant results are expected. Silverware must be delivered by the Italian boss by the end of the season or the consequence will inevitably be an early dismissal.
With so much speculation and instability surrounding some of the club’s players at present, preparations for their match against Romanian outfit Timisoara have been far from ideal.
Midfielder Stephen Ireland is poised to leave the club in acrimonious circumstances, an irked Craig Bellamy has dropped down to the Championship for a loan spell with Cardiff City, goalkeeper Shay Given is now unsure that his future lies at Eastlands and Carlos Tévez has been made club captain despite the fact he doesn’t speak English. The growing unrest at the club doesn’t bode particularly well for the rest of the campaign.
Mancini will certainly have to earn his money this season to keep the peace at the City of Manchester Stadium. Qualification for the Europa League will be his primary concern this week, though. Should they advance to the group stages, Man City will expect, at the least, to reach the latter stages and hopefully push on and win their first European trophy since the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1970.
However, their opponents have become accustomed to qualification campaigns in recent years and will be no pushovers. Last season, the Romanians reached the group stages of the Europa League, but only after narrowly missing out on qualification for the Champions League following defeat against Stuttgart in the play-off. In the qualifying match prior to that, they’d incredibly managed to knock out Uefa Cup winners Shakhtar Donetsk.
Despite Timisoara’s reasonable record, City have every right to regard themselves as favourites for this clash with the high-profile players at their disposal, but would be foolish to underestimate their opponents, particularly in the first leg at the Dan Paltinisanu Stadium.
The Liga I outfit have an experienced coach at the helm in the form of ex-Arsenal midfielder Vladimir Petrović and a group of players used to playing with each other - a team rather than a collection of individuals.
This is Mancini’s toughest assignment this season. Moulding a team out of a group of big-money stars is easier said than done, and City now have a squad of players where all 25 names are vying for a place in the starting line-up.
But because of the calibre of players in Mancini’s team, there will always be a chance that a moment of individual brilliance will save the day despite the lack of teamwork, which will come in time. With creativity and flair in abundance, the Premier League side will fancy their chances of outclassing their Romanian opponents.
No English team relishes the trip to the hostile surroundings of Romania, with or without a multitude of top-level stars. City will aim to avoid defeat this Thursday but, in any case, the issue of qualification won’t be decided until a week later in the more familiar surroundings of Eastlands.
Prediction: Timisoara 1 Manchester City 2
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