A goal in each half first by Benjani and then the recently prolific Stephen Ireland sealed a famous win for Mark Hughes side.
And there was no fluke about this stroll in front of a packed VELTINS-Arena for the hard working, slick passing, well-organised Blues were far and away the better side.
After the demolition of Arsenal in the last home match they couldn’t have had a better tonic ahead of the derby against United on Sunday when they hope to serve the talkative Mr Rooney some humble pie!
It is one of the beauties of an unwieldy and frankly over-bloated Uefa Cup that at the group stage of the competition it is almost as hard to be knocked out as it is to progress but even so the Blues are now almost certainly safely into the knockout stages.
They are white-hot favourites to land the number one seeding when Group A is done and dusted in the week before Christmas.
However, Schalke may also yet emerge as one of the three qualifiers from Group A for as in the Olympic rowing regatta, football’s most drawn out cup competition allows for a hiccough or two along the way for its eventual winner.
The omens are on City’s side though for only one side in the history of the competition has failed to progress beyond the group stage having picked up six points.
The Blues are no strangers to Gelsenkirchen. Back in 1970 they lost 1-0 to Schalke on the way to lifting the Cup Winners.
Then the Blues overcame a 1-0 first leg reverse to win the second game 5-1 at Maine Road and three of that team in skipper Tony Book, central defender Tommy Booth and the incomparable Mike Summerbee were in the VELTINS-Arena last night to witness the latest renewal.
They were interviewed on the pitch before hand and how their chests must have swelled at a performance as comprehensive as anything they produced that heady season.
Like the rest of the 2,700 travelling City fans they cannot help but have been impressed by Schalke’s home ground, a state of the art affair – complete with roof – that thanks to realistic ticket pricing throbbed from start to finish.
Such was the boundless, never-ending enthusiasm and upbeat nature of the support given to the home side that it seemed some 50,000 happy, smiling children’s television presenters had been rounded up and jammed into the ground though they went suspiciously quiet after the second goal as City’s travelling choir serenaded bade them goodbye – in German.
Not that City fans saw the funny side of the whole evening for after a troublesome journey from Cologne, thanks to a clogged up autobahn, they were then subjected to what many described as disorganised policing and stewarding.
Searches took an age meaning that there were hundreds of empty seats in the away end at kick off. For a country and club so keen to accommodate fans’ wishes it was something of an own goal. Still, all was well that ended well.
Mark Hughes made great play before the game that Sunday’s derby with United was not on his players’ minds and they proved their boss spot on.
In the absence of fleet-footed scoring machine Robinho the manager wanted his men to go out and show that they are no one-man band. All of them most notably Vincent Kompany, Joe Hart, Stevie Ireland and Benjani, rose manfully to the challenge and imposed themselves on the high-flying Bundesliga side.
There was not a substandard performance to be seen from the men in orange – total football indeed!
Having been victims of the ‘Noah Syndrome’ away from home this season (goals given away two by two in each of the last six trips!) it was difficult to see the Blues recording a first clean sheet on their travels since August but they did so with great aplomb and professionalism.
The opening goal came in the 32nd minute after Robinho’s replacement Danny Sturridge hared down the left flank in the manner of the Brazilian master and produced a low cross of such pace that the Schalke defenders couldn’t cope and though Stevie Ireland for once missed when presented with a sight of goal Benjani was at the far post to apply the simplest of final touches.
Schalke could have gone ahead earlier but for a fine one handed save from Hart after Jermaine Jones broke into the box and produced a stinging cross shot and the England keeper, who missed his chance in Germany with the national side a week earlier through injury, showed the locals what they had missed with a stunning second stop, this time high to his left, again from the diminutive but busy Jones.
The home crowd suddenly silenced under their ultra modern roof clearly expected better in the second half but it was City who continued to impress with Manuel Neuer in the home goal forced to tip a Wright-Phillips thunderbolt over the top and then catching a second decent effort from the England man.
A second away goal always looked likely and it arrived in the 66th minute courtesy of Stephen Ireland’s eighth of the season a casual roll under Neuer after Benjani’s power had unsettled the home side and then it was just left for Hart to deny Asamoah with a wonder save and for the celebrations to begin. Tweet
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They didn't show the game here in South Africa, so I had to follow it online! Excellent result. How did the guys look out on the field?
what are the doomers going to moan about now, poor things.
A truly fantastic effort!!! Dr spock, sweden
Great performance, big Vinny Kompany, what a centre half!
Hughes out!
You could knit-pick at one or two silly plays but what a great all round team performance. You couldn't fault one player for not working for the team today. Brilliant !
What a result !! First 15-20 minutes were like a game of chess, then we dominated!! 6 points from 2 games, bring on the derby !! Ireland was class again, so was Danny S. Loads of quality tonight, really pleased with that !!
great performance the shape looked good at the back with kompany and dunnie and richards where he should be at right back, hamman and ireland excellent bring on the scum
CTID
Never been so proud to be a Blue.Absolutely outstanding professional performance.Great tactics and team selection by MH.
" SUPERMAN IRELAND " VOW!
BRING ON SUNDAY DERBY
TOTALLY ALL AROUND TEAM EFFORT TOO.
CTID, VERY HAPPY HERE TODAY AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL FELLOW BLUES.
Men against boys. Is German football really that bad or did MH get tactics spot on? Ideal warm-up for the weekend - a run out for a few fringe players, no injuries, not physically draining, and confidence is high. Great work boys!
For a couple of minutes, put the result to the back of your mind.
This was the most COMPOSED, ORGANIZED, PROFESSIONAL performance a city team has given in recent history.
It started with the manager putting Kompany in central defence and Hamman to sit in front of them.
Sturridge showed he has as much claim to a place in the Derby team as Robinho.
NO Robinho, NO Elano, NO Petrov ...... NO PROBLEM !
Can't belive I'm actually looking at flights for Istanbul !
I thought Sturridge was just average. He made a couple of poor passes and didn't get after it on occasion, preferring to wait for the ball when he should have beaten his man to it. I think he's a lot better than what he showed today. The goals were a bit lucky, BTW. I wouldn't get too comfortable if I were City. The team needs to fight for everything, every game. We've already seen what happens when we get over confident - a string of losses.
Followed the game on the internet. great win lads. Now let's get ready to rumble on Sunday. Bring on Shrek and the swampers.
Thats what im talking about! - Brilliant - Keep it up lads!
ISTANBUL WE ARE COMING!
For me that was the best team performance of the season. Superb from start to finish and no weak links.
Well done Hughes, Kompany at CB and Hammann worked very well and we looked good on the break everytime we got the ball. Keep this up and I might even start saying more postive than negative things about you!
Good week so far....Lets make it a great week!
Stephen Ireland ....Awesome
Yet another "briliantine" performance from Stephen Ireland even match commentator Grahame Taylor admitted how "wella" he had played.
Despite the media requesting an after match interview Stephen decided to just "wash n' go"
Kompany and Dunne looked like natural pair with Kompany particularly outstanding. With the exception of Richards, it was a good all round team performance by the Blues.
Wow! Was this my beloved City, uttely professional? Roll on Sunday.
One word.........SUPERMAN!!!
That was the most professional and disciplined performance I can remember from City. Two great wins this week and two clean sheets. Well done to Mark Hughes for the game plan that was perfectly executed. And special mention to Hart who was magnificent I thought. Confidence will be sky high now.
Well done City did not expect that at the start i would hoped for a draw at the start 2-0 brilant back 4 was solid Irealnd was great we should be through to the knock out stages now proberly just need 1 more point we had 3 tough games Arsenal Schalke and Man United 2 wins hope to make it a hatick Bring on United
Immense, Magnificent. I take back everything I said about Stephen Ireland and Richard Dunne. Micah, grow up!!. What was all that with Vincent when you cocked up. Now we can concentrate on the rags.
Ste, Cheshire
spot-on mate
i agree - the best performance of the season (and that's saying something!)
What an evening.
So proud.
We won the tactical, physical and mental n battles and grew in confidence as the game wore on.
And, although a doubter of Harts for some time I have to hold my hands up and say he was immense for us.
Well done everyone.
Bring on the derby :D
THIS ARTICLE WAS VERY WELL WRITTEN AND SPOT ON PERSPECTIVES. BUT WHO ARE YOU? SOUNDS LIKE BLUES FAN BUT I KNEW THAT IT WASN'T CHRIS BALEY BECAUSE THERE WAS NO WRITER NAME???
ANYHOW, WELL DONE AND PLEASE PUT WRITER NAME DOWN NEXT ARTICLE SO WE KNOW AT LEAST WE HAVE SOME BLUE'S BLOOD IN MEN.
Micah at RB, Kompany at CB. You know it makes sense. Kompany was awesome throughout the match, great shifts by Superman,Benji and Sweep, and thought Sturridge looked brill. Needs to control his temper though. Good display from the continental referee, although some of his decisions showed up the difference between European football and the EPL (Ireland booked for a 50-50? Come on!), although there was hardly a bad tackle all night. Why can't we have refs like that?
All and all a commanding performace, well done Didi for lasting the full 90 and most importantly ROLL ON SUNDAY!