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If Mark Hughes was already fretting about the size of the task he has taken on at Manchester City, this embarrassing result left him grimacing as jeers filled the stadium at the final whistle. City badly needed a victory in this Uefa Cup second qualifying round, first-leg encounter to bring stability to a club who have been rocked by the uncertainty over their chairman, Thaksin Shinawatra, but this will only heighten the sense of crisis that has engulfed Eastlands over the past week.

Defeat by FC Midtjylland, a spirited and well organised, if little-known, Danish team, could be said to have confirmed Hughes’s worst fears about a squad that lacks the spirit and the fitness that he insisted upon at Blackburn Rovers, but the problems on the training ground and on the pitch are minuscule compared with the others that the club face at present. With an arrest warrant issued for Thaksin in Thailand, after his refusal to face corruption charges, this is a club in danger of exceeding their well-known reputation for the absurd, even without results such as this.

Thaksin was not in attendance, having identified Weybridge, in the Surrey stockbroker belt, as his haven as he tries to avoid extradition to Thailand. Clearly more pressing things are on his mind, but if last night does not tell him something about the mess his club are in, nothing will.

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Thomas Thomasberg, the denim-clad 33-year-old coach of Midtjylland, accused City of complacency and of underestimating a side formed when the rival clubs of Ikast FS and Herning Fremad merged in 1999. “Maybe they didn’t know our players,” he said. “Maybe they made stupid decisions because they lost the ball and thought it would be so easy to get it back.”

There may be some truth in that, but Hughes blamed a poor performance on early-season teething problems, hinting at a lack of character and of fitness among the players that he has inherited. “Perhaps we were a bit behind the opposition in terms of sharpness, but that is no excuse,” the City manager said. “We needed to be dynamic, show more personality and drive the play. We can play much better. The match-fitness needs to be in place.”

So, too, does concentration, with elementary errors contributing to City’s downfall. Danny Olsen’s goal in the fifteenth minute was beautifully taken, but made possible by awful defending, initially by Richard Dunne, who lost the ball to Jude Nworuh, then by the rest of the back four, who were slow to react as the ball quickly reached Olsen. He beat Joe Hart with a crisp left-foot shot.

If the defensive frailties were unexpected, City’s limitations going forward were depressingly predictable. With Jô, the new £19 million signing from CSKA Moscow, on Olympics duty with Brazil and four other centre forwards absent through injury, Daniel Sturridge, 18, and Felipe Caicedo, 19, made little headway in attack. Little wonder that Hughes wants Blackburn to sell him Roque Santa Cruz. A £12 million offer was immediately rejected, but Hughes suggested it proved that “maybe the financial crisis that’s flying around isn’t as substantiated as people are saying”.

Olsen’s goal left City shaken but, to their new manager’s anger, not stirred. Hughes harangued Micah Richards and Elano, as well as the lamentable Caicedo, but while Sturridge curled a shot against the crossbar just before the interval and Petrov did likewise with a free kick in the 78th minute, the jeers at the final whistle were more than understandable. It could have been worse, with Petrov hacking off the line from George Florescu’s corner and Johnson lucky to escape a red card after catching Kristian Flinta with an elbow in the final minute.

Manchester City (4-4-2): J Hart 5 - V Corluka 5, M Richards 5, R Dunne 4, T Ben Haim 4 - Elano 5 (sub: K Etuhu, 69min 4), G Fernandes 6, M Johnson 6, M Petrov 5 - D Sturridge 6, F Caicedo 4 (sub: VBojinov, 64 4). Substitutes not used: K Schmeichel, N Onuoha, M Ball, D Hamann, S Ireland. Booked: Corluka.

FC Midtjylland (4-4-1-1): L Heinze 5 - K Afriyie 5, D Califf 7, W Reid 7, C Poulsen 6 - D Olsen 6 (sub: C Madsen, 74), A Salami 7 (sub: D Flinta, 84), G Florescu 6, J Borring 5 - M Thygesen 6 - JNworuh 5 (sub: B Collins, 55). Substitutes not used: MRaska, F Marcic, K Ipsa, P Furuseth. Booked: Florescu, Reid, Heinze.

Referee: B Rafati (Germany).