Oil money does not necessarily buy experience, class or European heritage. Manchester City may have the funds, but they lack in many other respects and that was apparent on April 9 in the 3-1 defeat in the first leg of the Uefa Cup quarterfinal against Hamburg.

The tie is not over by a long shot, but if Mark Hughes and his team intend to progress further, they will have to go back to basics. City defender Micah Richards, wisely or not, has said that the team would need four to five years before they reach their "potential under their new owners", what ever that means. 

Steven Ireland shocked the 50 000 home supporters by netting a goal 40-odd seconds after kickoff, but his joy and that of his teammates and travelling support was short-lived as seven minuted later the German side was level. 

Hamburg shook off the initial sting, with the trademark German cold ruthless effectiveness simply took it on the chin and went forward, equalising through Joris Mathijsen, who beat Shay Given with a fine header.

City could have suffered even more as the home side, backed by a wall of noise emanating from the terraces, surged forward. Hamburg stood significantly better in the first half and Piotr Trochowski and Mladen Petric both had attempts on goal.

In the second half Richards handed the ball in the box, a clear-cut penalty that Trochowski obligingly converted for Hamburg to go 2-1 up. It would not have been a bad result had the match ended with that scoreline, but another defensive mistake at the end of the game cost City dearly.

With just 11 minutes left in the match, Jose Paolo Guerrero scored a third goal that will give Hamburg a comfortable cushion in the return leg. City are being plagued by inconsistency this season, but there is enough time for them to regroup for the second encounter.

Manager Mark Hughes insisted that City will not be intimidated by the result and are fully capable of turning things around in their favour.

"The third goal obviously makes it difficult for us, but I have just said to the guys now that we have to think positive. We know we can score goals at home, but it was disappointing after scoring so early," he said after the match.

"Hamburg are a good side, they have had an outstanding season and we can see the reasons why. They were a threat at set-plays, and were a big and athletic side. At the end we had a lot of walking wounded, we didn't even finish with 11 men because it looks like [Benjani Mwaruwari] has re-ruptured his thigh muscle. We also had a few that were not at the peak of their powers because of injuries they already had".