Manchester City are in danger of an early exit from Europe after a shock 1-0 home defeat by Danish side Midtjylland in their UEFA Cup second qualifying round first-leg match on Thursday. The loss adds to the ongoing turmoil at the club. Mark Hughes had been obliged to state publicly he would be staying at the club amid talk of financial constraints and internal conflict and could have used a victory in this match to lighten the mood around the club.

It was the worst possible start for City manager Mark Hughes as midfielder Danny Olsen struck in the 15th minute to give Midtjylland a good chance of progressing to the first round after the return leg in two weeks’ time. The Guardian reports that the City supporters booed the team off the field, while The Times quotes Thomas Thomasberg, the 33-year-old coach of Midtjylland, who accused City of complacency and of underestimating his side. “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 was no complacency for one of City’s domestic rivals, Aston Villa, as they cruised past FH Hafnarfjordur by a 4-1 scoreline. Almost as significant as the scoreline was the fact that Gareth Barry started for Villa, making himself ineligible to represent another club in the Champions League until the knockout phase in February. Could that signal the end of the much discussed courtship by Liverpool? The Daily Mirror has the rumour that Liverpool are going to come back with yet another bid for Barry.

Another club that was on the wrong end of an upset was Ligue 1 side Rennes, as they fell to Norwegian league leaders Stabaek by a 2-1 score. 36 year-old central defender Kjolo headed home a corner kick in each half for the home side while Moussa Sow (pictured above) scored a critical away goal to give Rennes hope for the return leg at home.As always, a collection of highlights that have made their way to the web has been compiled by the people at 101greatgoals.com.

The complete list of first-leg scores is posted below:
Metalurgs 0 – 2 SC Vaslui
FK Borac 1 – 0 Lokomotiv Sofia
Vojvodina 0 – 0 Hapoel Tel Aviv
FC Honka 0 – 0 Viking Stavanger
Legia Warsaw 1 – 2 FC Moscow
FC Haka 0 – 4 Brondby
Stuttgart 2 – 1 Gyor
APOEL Nicosia 2 – 2 Crvena Zvezda
Litex Lovech 0 – 0 Hapoel Ironi KS
Djurgarden 2 – 1 Rosenborg
Elfsborg 2 – 2 St Patrick’s Athletic
Stabaek 2 – 1 Rennes
FK Suduva 1 – 4 Red Bull Salzburg
Young Boys Berne 4 – 1 Debreceni VSC
Hafnarfjordur 1 – 4 Aston Villa
Gent 2 – 1 Kalmar
Aris Salonika 1 – 0 NK Slaven Koprivnica
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 3 – 2 AC Bellinzona
Slovan Liberec 1 – 2 MSK Zilina
FC Copenhagen 3 – 1 Lillestrom
Maccabi Netanya 1 – 1 Cherno More
FC Zurich 1 – 1 Sturm Graz
AEK Athens 0 – 1 Omonia Nicosia
KS Vllaznia 0 – 3 Napoli
Siroki Brijeg 1 – 2 Besiktas
Manchester City 0 – 1 Midtjylland
Queen of the South 1 – 2 Nordsjaelland
NK Ljubljana 0 – 2 Hertha Berlin
Braga 1 – 0 Zrinjski Mostar
Lech Poznan 6 – 0 Grasshoppers
Deportivo La Coruna 0 – 0 Hajduk Split

The final set of Intertoto Cup fixtures took place over the weekend and the eleven winning clubs now advance to the UEFA Cup second qualifying round. Advancing are Aston Villa, Napoli, Stade Rennais FC, RC Deportivo La Coruna, SC Braga, SC Vaslui, SK Sturm Graz, Grasshopper-Club, VfB Stuttgart, IF Elfsborg and Rosenborg BK.

A bit of history was made in this final installment of the Intertoto Cup as Rosenborg became the first Norwegian side to successfully qualify and Stuttgart became the only side to qualify for the UEFA Cup from the Intertoto Cup three times. All eleven Intertoto Cup winners will join the 16 automatic entrants and the 37 UEFA Cup first qualifying round winners in the draw for the second round, which will be held this Friday in Nyon.

The UEFA Intertoto Cup winners that progress furthest in the UEFA Cup will be presented with a trophy, following in the footsteps of Newcastle United FC in 2006 and Hamburg last season, who both reached the Round of 16.

Aston Villa’s 1-0 home win against Odense BK secured a 3-2 aggregate victory but also came at a heavy cost. Defender Wilfred Bouma had to be carried off after dislocating his ankle in the eleventh minute and is likely out for several months. In a bit of a soap-opera twist, wantaway midfielder Gareth Barry came on to replace Bouma.He received a warm reception from the home fans, which was a dramatic turnaround from his being booed by Villa supporters in a friendly the previous Wednesday.

Some of the more well-known clubs jump into the fray in this final round of competition including 2007 Bundesliga champions VfB Stuttgart, Aston Villa (former European Cup and 2001 Intertoto Cup Winners) and Norwegian club Rosenborg. Winners of this round enter UEFA Cup second qualifying round. The ultimate winner of the Intertoto Cup is the club from the surviving 11 who advances the furthest in the UEFA Cup.

My predictions of who will advance are highlighted. I’m picking what might be considered an upset by choosing Russian club Saturn over Stuttgart but the Russian league is in mid-season and Saturn crushed their opponents in the last round 8-1 on aggregate so they are in fine form going into this fixture. The same logic was applied to select Rosenborg advancing over NAC Breda.

Here are the complete fixtures, the first leg takes place over July 19th and 20th with the second leg being held on July 26th and 27th.

Bnei Sakhnin FC (Israel) v RC Deportivo La Coruña (Spain)
Panionios GSS (Greece) v SSC Napoli (Italy)
Sivasspor (Turkey) v SC Braga (Portugal)
Grasshopper-Club (Switzerland) v PFC Chernomorets Burgas (Bulgaria)
FC Saturn Moskovskaya Oblast (Russia) v VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
PFC Neftçi (Azerbijan) v SC Vaslui (Romania)
Stade Rennais FC (France) v SC Tavriya Simferopol (Ukraine)
SK Sturm Graz (Austria) v Budapest Honvéd FC (Hungary)
NAC Breda (Netherlands) v Rosenborg BK (Norway)
Odense BK (Denmark) v Aston Villa FC (England)
IF Elfsborg (Sweden) v FK R?ga (Latvia)

Deals are heating up on the eve of the Euro 2008 tournament so let’s dive straight in and get caught up.

This morning’s big news is that Mexican striker Giovani dos Santos has left Barcelona to sign for English club Tottenham Hotspur after the two clubs agreed an initial £4.7m fee which could rise to £8.6m. The BBC also reports (confirmed on the official Barca site) that Barcelona have retained the right to 20% of any fee should the 19-year-old move on from Spurs in the first two years of his spell with the club and 10% on any transfer after that.

Dos Santos can play in midfield or attack and may solve the right, is set to sign a five-year contract with Tottenham. Spurs entrance in the UEFA Cup, rather than the Champions League, may be one factor to this deal as Barcelona are said to have turned down offers for Dos Santos from AC Milan, Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.

Staying with Barcelona, Goal.com is reporting that they have concluded a deal to sign Daniel Alves from Sevilla but that has not been confirmed yet. A couple of deals that were done at the Nou Camp saw them acquire Villarreal’s Uruguay defender Martin Caceres for 16.5m Euros. Caceres is a 21-year-old central defender is widely regarded as one of the most promising young players in Spain.

They’ve also signed former trainee Gerard Pique from Manchester United. After rising through the youth team ranks at Camp Nou, Pique opted to try his luck at Manchester United in 2004 but, after failing to establish himself as a first-team regular, he jumped at the chance to return to Barca. The fee was reportedly £4 million.

Moving out is full-back Gianluca Zambrotta, who completed a move to AC Milan at the beginning of the month. The move is a return home for Zambrotta who left Italy following the demotion of former club Juventus for their part in Italy’s match-fixing scandal. Zambrotta who can play on either flank will ease the recent departures of Cafu and Serghino.

AC Milan recently sold forward Alberto Gilardino to Fiorentina and are in the market for at least one new striker. The 25-year-old Gilardino spent three seasons at the San Siro and has now signed a five-year deal with the Viola reportedly worth 1.65m euros a season. Fiorentina beat the Rossoneri to the fourth and final Champions League spot in Serie A this past season.

The promising young Yoann Gourcuff has agreed to join Bordeaux on loan from AC Milan with an option for a permanent deal. The French midfield player, 21, had attracted interest from Tottenham Hotspur, Marseilles and Ajax.

AC Milan is trying to sign Emmanuel Adebayor according to various rumours out there. What helps fuel the stories is the fact that the Serie A side have already lured away French midfielder Mathieu Flamini on a free from Arsenal.

Arsenal would be reluctant to sell Adebayor as they are looking to build upon last season’s squad. The hope would be to keep the core of their young stars together and supplement it with new signings like Olympique Marseille playmaker Samir Nasri, whom Arsenal are in the midst of negotiating for.

The 20-year-old Nasri, who has been tagged in France as ‘the new Zinedine Zidane’, is part of France’s squad for this month’s Euro 2008 tournament. He has won seven caps, scoring two goals for Les Bleus. Nasri extended his contract with the club this year until 2012 so Marseille will want good value for his sporting rights. The fact that Nasri can operate on the left side of midfield, where Alex Hleb has been playing, has fuelled rumours that Hleb is also going to leave the club for either Inter Milan or Barcelona.

Another Arsenal exitee is Jens Lehmann, who will continue his career after Euro 2008 with Bundesliga side Stuttgart after signing a one-year contract with the 2007 German champions. Raphael Schafer failed to give the Stuttgart defence a sense of security in his first season since joining from Nurnberg, so the club began the search for a new number one in May.

The Telegraph reports that Arsene Wenger has his eye on yet another promising young African, this time 16-year-old Torric Jibril. The Heart of Oak (based in Accra, Ghana) midfielder will take part in a two-week trial before signing for a fee of around £1.5m, with Arsenal having beaten off competition from Atletico Madrid and Lyon.

I’ll run an update again next week with more deals and rumours.