Home-known names in the race to Istanbul

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

Marseille has a tough test ahead to overcome a 2-0 away loss when it takes on Shakhtar Donetsk to make the semifinals of the UEFA Cup.

With barely a month to go before the final at Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, coach Erik Gerets may be eyeing a return to Istanbul, but needs to lead his boys to a famous victory, after going down 2-0 in Ukraine last week.

Gerets previously coached Galatasaray for two seasons between 2005 and 2007 and is a much-respected figure in Turkey, but in order to make a return to Istanbul, he needs to beat another key personality of Turkish football. Shakhtar Donetsk is coached by Mircea Lucescu, who has worked at both Galatasaray and Beşiktaş.

The Romanian led the Lions to the Turkcell Super League title in 2002, but was replaced by Fatih Terim regardless. Then he went on to move to Galatasaray’s archrival, Beşiktaş, where he would eventually win the league again in an unforgettable manner, as it was the latter’s centennial year.

While Istanbul waits to see which of the eight quarterfinalists will make it to the UEFA Cup final on May 20, it would become all the more exciting if one of them was Marseille or Shakhtar, mainly due to their coaches.

Lucescu is arguably a more experienced coach at this stage and his side carries a huge advantage to the Stade Velodrome in France, but Gerets’ team is on an undeniable boom of form. Marseille took the French League top spot from Olympique Lyon, who has been winning Ligue 1 for the last seven years, raising hopes of clinching the title. It can be said that the focus of Gerets’ boys will be the domestic league, especially when they have a serious chance of ending their 17-year drought, but it can be said that the attraction of forcing double trophies may prevail. And so does Gerets’ desire to play a final at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, the home of Galatasaray’s archrival, Fenerbahçe. Furthermore, no opposition team will think that Marseille would play it cool when it is in front of its 60,000-strong fans at the Velodrome.

PSGin Kiev
Ironically, the winner of this round will take on the winner of another French-Ukrainian tie, as Paris St. Germain visits Dynamo Kiev following a goalless draw in the French capital last week.

On the other side of the quarterfinals, the tournament’s heavy favorite Werder Bremen takes a 3-1 advantage to Udinese, the same score that another German team, Hamburg, will rely on against Manchester City.

Manchester City desperately hopes Brazilian striker Robinho will regain form and help overturn the team's 3-1 first leg deficit against Hamburg to reach the semifinals of the UEFA Cup.

The most expensive signing by an English club, Rohinho is now on course to be the flop of the season.

After scoring 12 goals in City colors in the first half of the season, the former Real Madrid striker hasn't hit the target since.

City manager Mark Hughes, whose job could be on the line if the club has yet another season of failure, gave Robinho a break by dropping him to the bench for Sunday's Premier League match at home to Fulham. The striker went on in the second half but made little impact as City lost 3-1.

Golden chance
Now he has a golden chance to make up for his poor recent form when City, which has not won a major title since 1976, takes on Hamburg.

Robinho's arrival at Man City, considered the world's richest club after being bought by a business consortium from Abu Dhabi, gave the fans hope that decades of failures were coming to an end with the team so long in the shadow of Manchester United.

But promising early results were followed by a slump and City, despite its wealth, slipped close to the relegation zone before a modest revival in the league standings.

Goalkeeper Shay Given, hired from Newcastle in the January transfer window, sees the potential at the club but calls on fans to be patient.

"In years to come I think this will be a great club to be involved with," the Irish said. "People are comparing us with Chelsea when Abramovich took over but they were already a top four side who just added more quality to make them champions. It is going to take us longer. Everybody want us to be there yesterday but we have got to put the building blocks in place."

Erik Gerets may return to Turkey

A much loved coach among Galatasaray fans after leading the club to the Turkish league title in 2006, Erik Gerets may return to Istanbul, even if just for the UEFACup title on May 20.