We've seen Blues on a European tour...

And so the Euro tour is over. After we managed to complete our task at hand, winning by a solitary first half goal from Adam Rooney stooping to meet the inch-perfect cross from Nathan Redmond, Braga, down to ten men after just fifteen minutes, failed to overcome Club Brugge and the pair shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw; which saw both teams through to the knock-out stages.

Our dreams of lengthening our European tour were over, but what a few months it has been. Starting in August, we travelled to the small island of Madeira to play out a fantastic 0-0 draw against C.D Nacional, a game in which we could and should have come out victorious. The return leg saw us this time take our chances and progress into the group stages of the competition, after goals from Nathan Redmond, David Murphy and Chris Wood rightfully saw us 3-0 winners on the night.

Club Brugge, Nk Maribor and last year’s losing finalists SC Braga lay in wait in Group H, and we were brought back down to earth in a 3-1 defeat at the hands Braga in the first group game. It looked to be going from bad to worse in our first away game in Slovenia, when Maribor went 1-0 ahead after a colossal mix-up at the back leaving Colin Doyle and Jonathan Spector both blushing. But strikes from first Chris Burke and then Wade Elliott secured our first victory in the group and our first away win.

We were in away day dreamland again in late-October; a 5,000+ following of jubilant Bluenoses saw their team again go behind, but again come back to win; this time in the most spectacular of fashions. David Murphy got his side back on level terms in the first half, and deep into 10 minutes of injury time after Pablo Ibanez’s head injury, substitute Chris Wood connected with Marlon King’s cross and sent the travelling Blues into delirium. Another away victory, another battling performance… and another city drank dry!

Facing Brugge again in our second home game in the group stages, we faced an uphill struggle after going two goals down in quick succession. But Blues displayed all the characteristics that got them to the group stages: desire, determination and spirit. First came a goal from Jean Beausejour which sparked the come back, and then a Marlon King penalty sealed a point for the blue boys and gave the club a real chance of progressing into the knock-out stages.

Braga, the only team to have taken all three points off us so far, were our next opponents: and it was all going so well. Attacking flair from the off won us an early penalty, but Nikola Zigic failed to convert and we were unlucky to lose by a single goal; courtesy of a long range shot from Hugo Viana which was going wide until a harsh deflection from Curtis Davies meant the ball crept past Boaz Myhill. And the bad night didn’t stop there: Maribor, three-nil up against Brugge, collapsed and conceded four goals in quick succession, meaning that qualification was out of our hands going into the final game of Group H.

And that’s where Blues’ European adventure ended; with a deserved 1-0 win against Maribor. But that doesn’t mean that we should be disheartened. A team – a Championship team – that was cleverly crafted on a shoe string budget by new manager Chris Hughton in the summer, have shown pride in battle getting so far in a European competition. They’ve given us some fantastic nights that will live long in the memory, some dazzling performances that we can all be proud of, and plenty of great goals which we can treasure forever. We’ve all been part of it: from the winning goal in the Carling Cup final to the full time whistle against Maribor last night, and it’s something I’m sure we’ll all look back on and smile at. We entered the competition, an unknown quantity to not only the teams competing against us but to ourselves – after a summer of turbulence seeing players depart and new faces arrive – but we gave it a bloody good go, made some alliances with clubs and fans along the way and at no point did we disgrace ourselves nor become disheartened. And you know what? We even diminished the ‘true blues’ fashion of falling at the last hurdle, by completing our side of the bargain and finishing on a high.

A brilliant adventure that none of us will ever forget. All together now: We’ve all been on a European tour, a European tour, a European tour…

Birmingham's Pride

It’s a strange situation we find ourselves in. Here we are, the end of another game in Europe, having lost 1-0 against last year’s losing finalists. And we’re absolutely devastated because we could have, and really should have, won the game.

The 4-5-1 formation showed we were playing to contain, and for the draw, yet coming out the blocks so fast and starting the way we did was phenomenal. Chris Burke was having a field day on the wing, and within ten minutes, Wade Elliott’s run into the box was stopped by Ewerton and Blues were awarded a penalty that their hard work thus far really did deserve. And then Nikola Zigic stepped up; and my head went into my hands. He is a good player, he does have it in him, but I knew right there that he wouldn’t score because he is not a penalty taker. He doesn’t have a hard shot. And then the inevitable happened and it was back to square one, when we should have been celebrating. The pendulum just wouldn’t swing in the right direction for us. In fact, Ewerton not getting a second yellow after a challenge on Burke should have warned us about what was to come, and remind us that we aren’t blessed with a lot of luck.

From there on out we continued to play with the passion and belief that Chris Hughton has so admirably installed into a team which, at the start of the season, none of us expected to reap such great rewards. And then came the absolute sucker punch that neither us nor Braga deserved, and the deflection off Curtis Davies summed up our luck for the night. But, we were still attacking; Marlon King and Nathan Redmond were brought on to shore up the attack. Chris Wood was introduced later on but still we had no breakthrough, and as the clock ran down time eventually ran out. Chris Hughton’s side had lost for the first time away in Europe during this season’s campaign. And the most devastating news of the night, typically and ironically apt, came just before the final whistle: Maribor 3-4 Brugge after the home side being 3-0 up. It summed up the whole night. Our very unlucky night.

Yet, it sounds like I’m putting the blame on Maribor for losing. We ourselves should have done more; taken our chances, God knows we’ve rued enough missed chances in the past few games. We should have learnt. And now we have one game to qualify, and it’s out of our hands as we will be relying on not just our own result at home to Maribor, but we will be relying on Braga beating Brugge at the Jan Breydel Stadium. It seems like a lost cause, but lest we forget how we got here in the first place: a win against Villa almost a year to the day now; coming from 3-1 down against West Ham to win 4-3; scoring in the 89th minute at Wembley to beat Arsenal; beating C.D Nacional 3-0 in a two-legged qualifier; two away wins against first Maribor and then Brugge where a 99th minute winner sealed the three points. We’ve come a long way in the past year. We’ve been relegated, we’ve lost our manager, we’ve lost our players and our owner is in all sorts of trouble. But amongst all that we’ve won a trophy and we’re playing in Europe. If this is where it ends, in two weeks’ time against Maribor – then so be it. I’ve collected enough memories in the past year to last me a lifetime, but if we were to pull off the unthinkable and manage to qualify then I wouldn’t begrudge another European away day. And you know what? I wouldn’t put it past this team to be celebrating come full time on the 15th December, and I urge every single one of you to get down to St. Andrews for what could be a magical night of European football – and it could very well be our last.

Post-Braga Thoughts

Yesterday evening saw the return of European football under the lights at St. Andrews. After beating Nacional 3-0 Blues were now in the group stages. The big time. First opponents: last year’s runners up and top Portuguese side SC Braga. A tough start, but the belief at Birmingham City is always there, so fans hoped for a cupset – which we are suitably renowned for after last season’s exploits in the Carling Cup. Unfortunately though, a well-organised Braga had other ideas; yet heads should still be raised high after a admirable and positive performance from a team with numerous changes from the starting eleven who beat Millwall at the weekend.

I am a glass half full kind of person, so for me last night – and this whole competition – is just something to enjoy and try to take out as many positives of each game as I can. For a start, Braga were very professional last night and must be commended. Their first goal, scored by Barbosa, was a delightful shot which Boaz Myhill just couldn’t prevent. Controversial circumstances surrounded the second of Braga’s goals when Lima, who looked to be offside, netted to put the Portugese outfit 2-0 up. But their calm and controlled manner on and off the ball saw them ooze professionalism and keep a frustrated Blues from scoring.

The lifeline in the 70th minute lifted St. Andrews and if we take one thing out of the game it can be that we scored in the group stages on the Europa League. After numerous chances and a period of dominance, substitute Chris Burke drilled a perfect ball into the path of Marlon King – impressing greatly on his full debut – who made no mistake of slotting the ball home from a few yards out.

Game on. We could do this. The crowed began to get behind the team even more so than they had done earlier on in the game, especially when Nathan Redmond picked up the ball on the wing. The youngster even had the chance to equalise after he cut in and produced a shot which almost curled into the top right hand corner but Braga keeper Quim tipped it agonizingly over the bar.

Unfortunately all this attacking business meant we were liable to be caught short at the back, and so Braga put any chance of a memorable Blues fight-back out of the window when Barbosa, scorer of the first goal, tapped home a close-range shot after a well-worked counter attack.

The team should not be disheartened: the fans aren’t. They didn’t disgrace nor embarrass themselves. A team consisting of new signings, players who were unfamiliar with each other and a captain who had an uncharacteristically bad performance actually did themselves proud. Of course a win would have been a great way to kick off the group and show a real presence amongst the European elite, but the team selection was a statement of intent put forward by Chris Hughton: this is not our bread and butter. The league is our main priority and the Europea League is a distraction, albeit an extremely nice and welcomed distraction.

I for one enjoyed last night. It was an experience I never thought I’d get supporting Blues so no matter what happens for the next five Group H games I’m going to enjoy it. You never know, they might surprise us. And if they don’t? Well, like I said, I never expected to be watching my team play Maribor let alone Braga and Brugge, and it’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.



Full Time: BLUES 1-3 SC Braga
Goal Scorers: Barbosa (6) (88) Lima (59) King (71)
Star Man: Marlon King - worked tirelessly and was in the right place at the right time to score our goal
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