Given backs Robinho and City co. to come good

Shay Given is predicting that the scent of silverware will bring out the best in Manchester City’s big names in the final stages of the season.

A penalty shoot-out win over Aalborg in midweek has put Mark Hughes’s side into the last eight of the UEFA Cup, where they will face Martin Jol’s Hamburg.

Goalkeeper Given, the star of the shoot-out win in Demark, expects to see team-mates like Robinho raise their game.

“We are getting to the exciting end of the tournament now and we have got some big players in our changing room,” the Ireland international said. “The closer we get to the final, the more they will be right up for it.

“It would mean everything to get to the final but we don’t just want to reach it, we’d love to win it.”

Despite their success on the European stage, City remain only a couple of defeats away from being dragged back into the relegation dogfight in the Premier League.

A setback against Sunderland, who are three points behind City and three above the drop zone would be particularly painful and Hughes has warned his players they can ill-afford any more slip-ups.

“Sunderland are in a situation they want to get out of very quickly,” the City manager said. “They have had a change at the top and Ricky Sbragia, who is a well respected guy in football circles, has come in and done a good job of settling things down.

“It’s a good game for us. We’re going in on the back of our exploits in Europe and maybe a little bit of freshness could be taken from us, but I don’t sense that. The elation of getting through will compensate for that.”

Hughes should be able to welcome Craig Bellamy back after the Wales striker’s recovery from a knee injury but Stephen Ireland, Wayne Bridge and Vincent Kompany are all doubtful because of injuries.

Sunderland have defenders Anton Ferdinand and Nyron Nosworthy fit again but will have to do without Israeli centreback Tal Ben Haim, who is on loan from City and, as such, ineligible to play against his parent club, and the suspended Kieran Richardson.

Sbragia is seen as having done a good job since succeeding Roy Keane earlier this season but he was left frustrated by a poor performance in last weekend’s defeat by Wigan.

He said: “We hope it was just a one-off. The performances in general have been decent, and that was one that really let us down.

“We have got to make sure we can change it around from Saturday. We have got to do better than we did against Wigan, get the tempo a little bit higher and work harder. But we are confident enough we can get something.”