Man City and Tottenham clinch crucial UEFA Cup wins

Manchester City and Tottenham edged closer to the UEFA Cup knockout stages on Thursday with crucial away wins while Portsmouth were aiming to make it an English triple by toppling Italian giants AC Milan.

City made it two wins out of two in Group A with an assured 2-0 victory over Germany's Schalke 04 in Gelksenkirchen which followed their opening 3-2 victory against FC Twente.

City took the lead on the half-hour mark when Daniel Sturridge's cross-cum-shot was sidefooted home at the far post by Zimbabwean striker Benjani Mwaruwari to stun the majority of the 60,000-strong crowd.

In-form midfielder Stephen Ireland coolly tucked away the second in the 65th minute.

Tottenham enjoyed a 1-0 win at Dutch side NEC Nijmegen with Jamie O'Hara's 14th-minute header proving the clincher after Fraizer Campbell had hit the bar.

Harry Redknapp's side now have six points from three Group D games, which should be enough to get them through ahead of their final match against Spartak Moscow.

“It was difficult. The pitch wasn't particularly good,” said Redknapp.

“It was difficult to really pass the ball but we were strong and solid and I never felt in any danger. Six points is job done.”

In Group H, CSKA Moscow beat Lech Poznan of Poland 2-1 to make sure of their place in the knockout stages.

Alan Dzagoev and Yuri Zhirkov's first-half goals secured CSKA's third successive win with Semir Stilic hitting a late consolation.

Later Thursday, English FA Cup winners Portsmouth, who lost their opening game in Group E 3-0 at Sporting Braga in Portugal, were hosting former European champions AC Milan at their humble Fratton Park home.

Milan went into the match having won both their opening fixtures at Heerenveen and at home to Braga.

The top three teams in each of the eight groups go through to the knockout stage where they will be joined by the eight third-place finishers from the opening round of the Champions League.