STAMINA, skill and patience will be the key factors that identify the winners of this season’s Uefa Cup and City are shaping up as though they have all three elements in their armoury.

After a slightly fortuitous success against Midtjylland in Denmark in the second qualifying round the Blues last night used all their wiles and considerable ability to ensure that their passage into the group stages should be somewhat more straightforward.

Had they packed anything resembling shooting boots for the trip to Cyprus the tie would already have been done and dusted but as it is there is little chance of the outclassed Omonia turning the contest around in a fortnight’s time.

Should City go on to reach the final in Istanbul next May – as the travelling fans’ new repertoire of catchy songs suggests they will – Mark Hughes side will have played 19 games the equivalent of half a Premier League season!

They are unlikely to make and miss as many clear cut openings in that tranche of matches as they did in 45 minutes last night.

Still the Uefa Cup is a gruelling ten-month campaign that will stretch every resource the club has at its disposal but with the manager promising that sides he creates and trains are habitually stronger, fitter and harder to beat in the months after Christmas than before then there is every reason to be hopeful that City will go far in what is a hot competition this time around.

Certainly Omonia were no pushovers but neither were they eye catching opposition. T

he Nicosia based side are in the vanguard of their country’s current resurgence on the European stage and nearly 20,000 of their fans packed into the GPS Stadium for the tie.

Some were simply curious to see how their collection of journeymen professionals stacked up against a globally assembled City starting eleven that cost around £90million but others particularly the Shamrock waving (it is Omonia’s emblem) fanatics congregated in Gate Nine sensed more.

The green shirted masses created a wonderful but intimidating atmosphere with their klaxons, flares drums and horns. On the way to the ground they also set a world record for people travelling on top of cars rather than inside them. British health and safety would have had a fit.

They came in expectation because they had never seen their side lose in the GPS stadium in European competition and they were not keen to start a fresh trend last night in stifling, humid conditions on a sticky pitch that was bone hard under the surface having already hosted a pop concert and another Uefa Cup match in the three days previous to this match.

Hughes promised some changes from the side that produced such a superb spectacle against Chelsea at the weekend and he delivered them though only in moderation with Michael Ball dropped to the bench in favour of Javier Garrido and Elano brought back at the expense of defensive buffer Didi Hamann.

It was a bold move by the Blues boss signalling an attacking intent in a 4-1-4-1 formation that included all three of his exciting Brazilian imports. And they were all to the fore with varying success in the early exchanges.

The quick starting Blues kept the ball for the whole of the first three minutes with Robinho finally bringing a fine save out of Georgallides in the home goal.

And the boy ‘George’ was at it again a few moments later, flinging himself with gusto to his left to palm away a Shaun Wright-Phillips’ effort from the edge of the box.

City should have gone ahead in the 26th minute but after some fine foraging by Ireland on the right and the perfect cross the £19million man somehow contrived to watch the ball to bounce over his foot when all he had to do was steer it into the net from three yards. As contenders go for the miss of the season it must be a clear front runner.

Had Jo not inexplicably let that chance go begging it would have silenced the vociferous crowd but instead gave them something to laugh at.

Still classy City dominated, ripping the home side apart down the left back channel, and Ndikumana’s wonderful last ditch tackle was all that stood between Elano and the opener before Jo nearly managed to make up for his earlier howler but having beaten Georgallides with his angled drive saw it rebound off the inside of the post.

As the litany of missed chances grew to gargantuan proportions Ireland then contrived to hit the outside of post from a yard.

Having been so outclassed it is one of football’s irrefutable laws that the side having taken a beating will score first and so it was here with the fortuitous Cypriots hitting the front when neither a well-manned wall nor the stretching Joe Hart could prevent veteran Albanian Duro’s 49th minute free kick fizzing into the back of the net.

Even then City were totally in control but Georgallides saved with his legs from Ireland when a leveller seemed certain and then Jo, when clean through tried for too much power and hit the bar.

The Brazil international was having a torrid time but even he couldn’t miss in the 59th minute when Wright-Phillips robbed the woeful Charalambous to score his first goal for the club.

Like the old buses, before those bendy monstrosities, the second one didn’t take long in coming along and it had South America written all over it with Argentina’s Pablo Zabaleta providing the cross for Jo to deftly chest down before drilling home a low shot. It was a fine finish to a night that hadn’t started well for him.