Craig Bellamy injury blow as Hamburg defeat Manchester City

Craig Bellamy fears he could be out for the rest of the season on a disastrous night for Manchester City in Europe.

Bellamy suffered a recurrence of his knee injury and is worried he will not be back before the end of the campaign, while Benjani ruptured his thigh muscle.

City face a huge task to turn around the UEFA Cup quarter-final tie at Eastlands next Thursday and Stephen Ireland admits they blew it.

The Blues led through Ireland's first-minute strike before falling apart and the midfielder said: "We're gutted.

"We started well, but we were not brave enough and in the end we threw it away."

Mark Hughes refused to admit that City's Euro dream is over and says they have the firepower to beat Martin Jol's Bundesliga side to reach their first semi since 1981.

"I think 3-1 is a difficult score to pull back in the second leg, but we are certainly not out of the competition," said the City manager.

"We've proved time and time again that we can score goals at Eastlands. I think that 3-1 is a scoreline we can pull back, I'm absolutely certain of that. We have proved we can cause Hamburg problems with our play.

"We've picked up more injuries and Benjani has re-ruptured his thigh, Craig Bellamy has done his knee and Shaun Wright-Phillips also had to come off."

But for Shay Given's heroics, the tie would definitely be over and Hughes said: "Shay Given is an outstanding goalkeeper. He's paid to make crucial saves and that's what he did."

Jol, who has won all seven games against City, was not celebrating just yet and he knows an early City goal at Eastlands could turn the tie their way.

"I would have preferred it if we had scored one more goal and if they score the first goal over there, it could be very difficult," he said. "I'd like to forget the first minute, but then we got better and in the second half, we played really well."

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