Brighton claim prize scalp
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'Wasteful City pay the penalty as Brighton rock Hughes' billionaires'
Brighton completed a famous victory last night, knocking the Premier League's richest side out of the Carling Cup on penalties. The south-coast club, who are 13th in the League One table, progressed to the third round in stunning fashion as the defender Matt Richards converted the crucial penalty after Michael Ball had seen his weak effort saved by the home goalkeeper, Michel Kuipers.
An 89th-minute equaliser from the midfielder Glenn Murray had shocked Manchester City and sent the game into extra-time after Gelson Fernandes' goal had looked enough to put the Premier League club on the road to meet Derby County in the third round.
Brighton then took an early lead in extra-time when Joe Anyinsah slotted from 12 yards and it was left to Stephen Ireland to force penalties, a left-footed shot bringing City equal after 108 minutes.
Mark Hughes had made six changes from the starting XI that thrashed Portsmouth 6-0 on Sunday but retained one of his Brazilian strikers, Jo. He broke one record as soon as he stepped on to the Withdean Stadium turf, becoming the most expensive player to have ever done so, valued at £18m. The previous record holder was the long-throw specialist Rory Delap while he was a £4m Southampton midfielder. Jo's compatriot Robinho was reportedly moving house and could not make the trip south.
The nearest thing to a goal in the first half came on 21 minutes when Steve Thomson, wearing the captain's armband for Brighton in the absence of the injured top scorer Nicky Forster, sliced through City's defence and drilled his shot against Kasper Schmeichel's left-hand post.
Earlier it had taken 13 minutes for City to muster a shot on goal, with Jo barely testing Kuipers from 25 yards. The striker struggled for long periods, and needed treatment after a hefty challenge by Richards and was slow off the mark to a 33rd-minute through-ball that Kuipers came out to collect. Ball was City's saviour in the 27th minute when the dangerous Thomson burst through on to a low pass that the defender had to hook away.
But City finally got going and Kuipers had to be quick off his line to deny Daniel Sturridge before the visitors wasted another golden chance to go ahead. Ireland's corner from the right found Richard Dunne rising above all challengers but he steered his header over the crossbar.
City's first-half display had not deserved a lead but after 64 minutes Fernandes struck from Jo's pass to finally give the visitors the advantage. Brighton upped their game, though, bridging the gap in class with their commitment and closing down smartly to prevent any real flow to the City attacks.
Thomson went scampering through and beat Schmeichel four minutes from time but his shot cannoned off the right-hand post. However, with just a minute of normal time remaining Murray forced the extra half-hour, jabbing home after Thomson's shot was parried by Schmeichel.
Brighton had lost on Saturday to Walsall 1-0 at home, but the paupers from the south coast showed that money cannot always buy success.
Anyway back to reality, the Mirror bring us...
'Manchester City to bid for Atletico Madrid's Argentine star Aguero'
Money-laden Manchester City are ready to break the bank again to land Atletico Madrid’s Argentine star Sergio Aguero.
City representatives watched the 20-year-old in last night’s La Liga derby clash with Getafe.
And with the Abu Dhabi cash behind the Eastlands side meaning they would have no problems in breaking the British transfer record to pay the £48million that represents the release clause in Aguero’s contract, Atletico fear they may be powerless to resist City.
Aguero was on the interim list drafted by City’s new owners on their deadline day plunge into the market which saw Brazilian superstar Robinho snatched out of Chelsea’s embrace to move to Manchester from Real Madrid.
Inter Milan have already approached Aguero’s father in law, Diego Maradona, in a bid to entice the South American to the San Siro, offering him a role as an advisor to the Italian giants.
But City’s limitless cash coffers mean they can blow any rivals out of the water in their attempts to buy a team good enough to conquer Europe within three years.
Atletico are reluctant to part company with Aguero, who has become the linchpin of Javier Aguirre’s team, including a brace on his Champions League debut at PSV Eindhoven last week.
The Olympic gold medallist has been hailed as potentially the best player in the world in waiting by his Atletico team-mate and former Chelsea midfielder Maniche.
And with City’s ambitions utterly transformed by their shock takeover, a January bid is already being lined up.
Atletico would be likely to reject that approach, especially if they are still in the Champions League, as seems likely.
But as the Vicente Calderon side proved when they let Fernando Torres leave for Liverpool in a £26.5m move last summer, Atletico are financial realists who would find it impossible to resist a mega bid at the end of the season.
An Atletico insider said: “The club does not want to sell Aguero and will not be interested in doing anything in the winter window.
“But if a bid is received that matches his release clause, it would make sense to listen to that offer and weigh things up.”
The Daily Telegraph
'Mark Hughes hails 'fantastic' Stephen Ireland'
Mark Hughes has rubbished suggestions that he considered letting Stephen Ireland leave Manchester City over the summer.
The midfielder has been in superb form all season and turned in another sparkling display in the 6-0 victory over Portsmouth on Sunday.
Some reports have claimed that Ireland could have been moved on during the transfer window with Hughes looking to rebuild his squad after arriving as manager.
However, Hughes has dismissed the speculation and insisted that Ireland was always integral to his plans.
“I was never going to allow Stevie to leave and he has repaid that faith,” he said. “I don’t let players leave my club if I think it would weaken us and that would have been the case.”
Hughes has been delighted with Ireland’s performances this season and believes he is reaping the rewards of hard work.
He said: “Stephen has arguably been our best player all season. He has put in some fantastic performances.
“He makes some fantastic recovery runs but myself and the coaching staff cannot take the credit for the condition he is in because he worked so hard during the summer and came back with a real determination to show that he wanted to be part of what we are doing.
“He has worked exceptionally hard from day one and is reaping the benefits now and so are we.”
Ireland’s fellow countryman and club captain, Richard Dunne, added: “I think he’s really enjoying his football. He’s been leading up to it now for the last three or four games and he's been improving with each one.
“I think the Portsmouth game just topped it off. With all the flair players around him he doesn’t look out of place at all.
“The style of play that we are playing really suits him and the freedom that he’s getting is right up his street. He’s playing with a smile on his face and he looks like he’s really enjoying it.”
In fact the whole team looked as though they enjoyed Sunday’s stroll, but Dunne insists the hard work starts now.
“We don’t want to get carried away with everything that’s been going on around the club, but results like Sunday give us that extra confidence,” he added.
City keeper Joe Hart, meanwhile, spoke of his enjoyment of watching the trouncing of Portsmouth, even though he was largely unemployed in the match. “It was just as enjoyable for me to watch as I’m sure it was for everyone in the stadium – apart from the Portsmouth fans,” he said.
“It was great and I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve never been involved in anything like that so it was good to watch.
“They were brilliant on Sunday and everyone as a team were excellent – it all came together.”
*To read our original story on mcfc.co.uk from yesterday, click here >
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