Eriksson delight at Elano

Manager believes Brazilian can fire City to Europe

Last updated: 24th April 2008

elano

Elano: Returning to his best

Related links

Teams

Players

Also see

Sven Goran Eriksson has admitted his delight that Elano has been able to return some 'fantasy' to Manchester City.

Elano made a dazzling start to life in England after making an £8million move from Shakhtar Donetsk last summer.

But as City's form slumped after Christmas, so did the standards of Elano as City fell out of the reckoning for an automatic European qualification spot.

However, Elano has enjoyed a recent return to form as the Brazilian netted from the penalty spot in City's recent success at Sunderland, before he and goalscorer Martin Petrov played a crucial role in helping City record three home points against Portsmouth last weekend.

Respect

"I think Elano had been out of form for some time and you have seen the results," Eriksson said in the Manchester Evening News.

"To be fair and respectful to the other players, Elano and Petrov have been very important to us when you talk about goal-scoring, when you talk about creating chances all season.

"Petrov has been out and Elano down from his best so it has been good to see them back to their best in the last two matches.

"Elano is the player in our side with fantasy. The player who can see things that others, maybe, cannot. He can score goals too.

Confidence

"At Sunderland, he worked hard too - even defensively - and that is important. Then against Portsmouth the quality of his passing from full back was fantastic.

"Like the other players we signed this season, Elano will be better with this season under his belt here."

The consecutive victories against Sunderland and Pompey handed City their first back-to-back Premier League wins since October and Eriksson believes they have revived the Blues' chances of finishing in a European spot.

"We speak about attitude and confidence a lot and both has changed since those wins," Eriksson added.

"There is always a knock-on effect when you win games and training has been sharper this week after six points and means that we are still in the race for Europe."