Hughes hails City quality

11:26am Friday 18th July 2008

Mark Hughes was delighted with the quality shown by new boy Jo and winger Martin Petrov after he started his reign as Manchester City manager with victory over EB Streymur.

New boss Hughes oversaw a competent 2-0 win in the Faroe Islands in the UEFA Cup first qualifying round first leg, with Petrov scoring the opener and Dietmar Hamann netting the second that made the second leg at Barnsley on July 31 little more than a formality.

And Hughes said of £19million new boy Jo and Petrov: "They have the sort of quality that can really unlock defences."

He added: "We created good chances and I was pleased with Jo's performance.

"He showed great awareness of players around him, and once he gets to know the players and the way we want to play he will be a big asset to us.

"Petrov was excellent, certainly in the first half. The opposition found it difficult to cope with the quality he has. He put a lot of dangerous crosses into the box and with luck we could have converted more.

"But overall his performance was excellent, he got us off on the right foot with that opening goal and pushed us towards a good performance all round.

"We hope he will be proving a lot of goals this season. He has the ability to go past people, and break through the lines.

"When you have someone like that with the technical ability to affect the game positively like that, it gives you a lot more options."

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