FC Copenhagen’s Martin Vingaard hit an injury-time goal to force a 2-2 draw at home to Manchester City in the UEFA Cup on Thursday to inflict another blow after coach Stale Solbakken accused the English side of “destroying football”.
On a bitter-sweet night for English football, a second-string Tottenham lost 2-0 at Shakthar Donetsk in their last 32 match, with manager Harry Redknapp only fielding two players — Jermaine Jenas and Michael Dawson — which drew against Arsenal in their last match.
Substitute Vingaard scuppered the plans of City manager Mark Hughes in Denmark to score on his debut to set up an intriguing Eastlands second leg in a week’s time.
Stephen Ireland’s goal on the hour looked enough for Robinho and co to grab the victory but Vingaard had none of it. City’s Nedum Onuoha had opened the scoring for City before Ailton Almeida equalized.
Solbakken had been outspoken before the match, saying the riches being spent by City, backed by the wealth of Sheikh Mansour and his group, were not healthy for football.
Redknapp had put together a makeshift side, resting Luka Modric, Jonathan Woodgate, Wilson Palacios and Aaron Lennon, plus leaving out a host of other players for injury and administrative reasons.
Goals late on from Yevgen Seleznov and Jadson mean Tottenham will have work to do to go through from their February 26, White Hart Lane second leg.
Dawson told Channel Five: “I thought we did well in the first half and for the first half-hour of the second half – but what happened at the end has cost us.
“We knew coming to a place like this they would have a lot of the ball but we’re disappointed. It’s going to be an uphill task – but we still believe we can do it.
“Look at the players who’ve come in, we had a great team out there and believed we could come here and win. But we know how good we are at home and we’ll have to take the game to them.”
