Manager Sven-Goran Eriksson still believes his side are firmly in contention and with seven games of the season remaining City sit just one point behind Portsmouth who are in sixth and face a battle with Blackburn and Aston Villa too for a UEFA Cup place.
Looking at the four-way scrap, Sven declared: “I think it will be a very good competition for us and the teams around us for fifth, sixth and seventh place in the league, everyone wants to play in Europe but as long as we still have the chance we should be rather happy.
“Maybe at a certain point when we were second, third or fourth in the league, people took it for granted that we should reach Europe, but the competition is very hard, although the position we are in today, if we can go on playing well in the last seven matches is okay. We’ll see what happens at Birmingham to start with.
“If we could reach the UEFA Cup I think we are ready for that and it’s a big difference between that and the Champions League.
“We still have a chance and it’s very much up to us. I’ve always said as long as it’s mathematically possible then we have to believe in it and try for it.
“There’s only one point difference up to where I think we can qualify for Europe – so of course we are going to fight for it. You can say we lost it here or there, and during a long season you have ups and downs, but with seven games to go we are still in the race.”
