City return to European action in style

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Trevor Sinclair’s brilliant volley sparked a five-star Manchester City performance as the Blues returned to Europe in style tonight.

The England winger became the first player to score a competitive goal at City’s new Eastlands home and marked the moment in style after 14 minutes, lashing home a first-time effort from the edge of the area after Welsh minnows TNS had failed to clear an Eyal Berkovic corner.

Second-half strikes from the persistent Shaun Wright-Phillips, defensive duo Sun Jihai and David Sommeil as well as record signing Nicolas Anelka ensured City will travel to the Millennium Stadium in a fortnight with few fears of an early exit and dreams of emulating their 1970 Cup Winners’ Cup triumph.

Sinclair was the pick of the City pack, creating two as the hosts added four second-half goals to his 14th-minute effort.

But the loudest cheer of the night was reserved for injury-plagued Paulo Wanchope, who has not played for the club since January last year.

The unpredictable Costa Rican showed he had lost none of his abilities, producing a couple of mazy runs which had the crowd on their feet, even if the goals came from other sources.

With City celebrating their return to European combat after a 25-year absence, the only thing the visitors were expecting to celebrate was having the green light given by UEFA for their proposed merger with Oswestry.

And in the opening stages at least, City led their opponents a merry dance, with Wright-Phillips prominent in a succession of home attacks which should have brought more than Sinclair’s single strike.

Wright-Phillips could have had a hat-trick on his own, but was unable to find the target with a string of shots, the worst of which followed his own exceptional control when he took down Sylvain Distin’s long ball in two touches only to lash a right-footed shot wide with the goal at his mercy.

By naming his strongest possible line-up, Keegan had signalled his intention to go for the kill early, so it must have been a considerable disappointment to the former England coach that his side seemed to lose their way once they went in front.

Eyal Berkovic drifted out of the contest after sparkling in the early stages, his incisive passes cutting the TNS defence to shreds before the Welshmen hauled even more players back to help out.

Paul Bosvelt and Michael Tarnat both looked good on their debuts, the latter stepping up to fire a free-kick wide after Anelka had been bundled over on the edge of the box.

For the most part, though, Anelka was a link man, and while Robbie Fowler had one shot cleared off the line by Chris Taylor, he was not getting too many chances either, smothered by the TNS defensive blanket.

City needed to encourage the visitors out of their own half, which they achieved by dropping off slightly, offering TNS some room to push forward.

It brought the Welshmen their first corner, which saw John Leah shoot well wide and another shot shortly afterwards from the same player with the same result.

The confidence surge kept TNS going forward after the break and consequently City had the tie wrapped up within 15 minutes.

A confirmed Blues’ fan, visitors’ keeper Gerry Doherty will not remember facing his favourites with any affection after somehow allowing Wright-Phillips’ long-range effort slip under his body.

City’s third arrived on the hour when Fowler stood up an excellent cross from the by-line, which dipped just beyond Doherty and was headed home by Jihai.

With victory secured, the home fans reserved their loudest cheer for the arrival of Wanchope, whose 18-month absence has done nothing to quell the love for his unpredictable style.

One senses it will be the Central American, not Fowler, who gets the best from Anelka, although it was Wanchope’s own work which forced the corner from which Sommeil tucked home the fourth.

It rounded off an impressive victory, even given the standard of opposition, but Keegan knows he will have to find a way of incorporating Wanchope into his plans for longer than tonight’s brief cameo.