The England Under-21 skipper has only scored on one other occasion for the Blues - his winner against Tottenham at Eastlands nearly a year ago - and this one owed quite a debt to Jesper Christiansen’s slapstick moment.
Manager Mark Hughes reckoned that Nedum gave Christiansen ‘the eye’ as the stand-in keeper spilled his regulation shot, and defender Onuoha smiled: “I gave him the eye ... and about ten kroners as well!
“It was kind of embarrassing but important as well, but I’ll take it. Hopefully, I’ll score in the next game as well.
If I’d struck it well, the keeper would probably have saved it, so hitting it so terribly was probably the best thing I could have done.
Nedum Onuoha
Onuoha added to the bizarre nature of the goal by saluting the ‘fans’ painted on a giant mural behind the goal where building work is going on - a new take on the popular City song “We’re not really here”, perhaps?
He explained: “A few of us were talking about it before the game, and I said that I would do it - but I didn’t really think I would score! Then it happened, so I just had to make the most of it.”
Copenhagen’s last-ditch equaliser was all too real, and Nedum admitted: “It gives them a boost, but we still have two away goals for the next game, so I think we are in a good position.
“The late goal didn’t really change our mood too much. If we’d thought about it before the game, we’d have realised that 2-2 is not a bad result, so we will take that and try to use it to our advantage next week.
“We have worked hard to get this far, and you have to make the most of every game you play in Europe, because you never know if you’ll get the chance again.
“I think we played well in Denmark, barring two soft goals. We could have scored a lot more ourselves and won the game. Hopefully, we can carry that on into Sunday at Liverpool.”
