#2 Birmingham City 2011-12
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Birmingham City had a bitter 2010 – 11 English Premier League campaign which saw them get relegated to the Championship via a single point. However, the saving grace was their League Cup victory, a 2-1 upset over heavy favourites Arsenal. This would ensure that the Midlands side would play in Europe while traversing the English second tier in 2012.
Birmingham would navigate the play-off round effectively, seeing off Portugese side Nacional 3-0 with all goals coming in the home leg at St. Andrew’s. They were put in to a group comprising Club Brugge, Maribor and that nemesis of English clubs – Braga, in the opening group stage round of the tournament proper.
The opening home match against Braga turned out to be a dismal 1-3 reverse, but the result only seemed to make the English side more resolute. Maribor were beaten 2-1 away and a controversial goal from New Zealand striker Chris Wood in the tenth minute of injury time would see Birmigham steal a victory against Brugge in Belgium.
City would play their heart once again against Brugge as the home leg saw the Midlands side trail 0-2 at half time, but came back to draw 2-2.
However matchday five would deal a terrible blow as Braga beat Birmingham 1-0 at the Municipal Stadium, courtesy of a Hugo Viana goal and Brugge would conjure up two late goals to beat Maribor away. The result meant that Braga and Brugge led City by three points going in to the last round of matches.
The permutations leading up to the final group game against Maribor meant that Birmingham would qualify if they beat the Slovenians and Braga defeated Brugge. City did their part, beating Maribor 1-0, but Bruge never looked like losing at their Jan Breydel Stadium and their match with Braga ended in a 1-1 draw. The result meant that Birmigham failed to get out of the group, despite scoring 10 points.
