Manchester City are in Germany where they will face tough opposition from Hamburg in the first leg of the quarter-finals clash for the Uefa Cup. Bulgarian attacking midfield Martin Petrov has been ruled match fit and will travel to Germany for the encounter. It is unlikely that Petrov will be featured in the starting 11, although it is possible that he will be deployed at a later stage in the match.
 
Manchester City, however, have other selection problems in the face of Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong who are both ruled out of the match. It has come as a disappointment to them as both players were set to play against their former team, Hamburg.
 
Kompany is suffering from a hamstring injury collected during the Premier League defeat by Arsenal last Saturday. His Man City team-mate, and former Hamburg team-mate, Nigel De Jong, is also out as he is cup-tied.
 
But left-winger Martin Petrov has reportedly recovered from a knee injury that kept him sidelined for six months and midfielder Stephen Ireland, returning from an ankle knock, have both travelled to Germany and have been declared fit for action.
 
The German team also will have to be subjected to reshuffling around the park to meet their requirements for the encounter as Hamburg will be without a number of key players, such as Bastian Reinhardt, Thimothee Atouba, Romeo Castelen, Maxim Choupo-Moting, Guy Demel and Alex Silva – all of them out due to injury.
 
The good news for the hosts are Paolo Guerrero and Collin Benjamin returning to service for the club against Manchester City.  
 
On the club’s website, ahead of the match, Richard Dunne said he is relishing the Uefa Cup showdown with Bundesliga high-fliers Hamburg.
 
Richard Dunne, aka Captain Courageous, scored a vital penalty when the battle with Aalborg for a quarter-final place went the full distance to a nerve-shredding penalty shoot-out.
 
"On our day we can beat anyone, and we have to go in with that attitude. Winning at Schalke was our best performance, and that game will be of benefit to us. If we can play like that we'll be more of a match for Hamburg," he said.
 
 "We've probably got the toughest draw we could have had, but you want to play the major sides in large stadiums. The German fans will make it a big night - even at Schalke when we were beating them comfortably, the crowd were still making a lot of noise.