Manchester City manager Mark Hughes believes that the door to Europe for a second successive season is still very much ajar.

Hughes wants his side to stake a claim for seventh spot in the Barclays Premier League after they were knocked out of the UEFA Cup by Hamburg last night.

It means City must keep their foot on the pedal as they are six points adrift of seventh with only six games remaining, three of which are at home.

Hughes, however, has taken great heart from their performance against the Bundesliga high-flyers, despite losing the quarter-final tie 4-3 on aggregate.

Goals from Elano - with a penalty - and Felipe Caicedo gave them a 2-1 victory on the night, but it was not enough after losing the first leg 3-1.

Hughes is calling for a similar spirit on Sunday when they face bottom side West Brom at Eastlands.

He said: "We will try to get in to Europe by virtue of our league position. If we can continue our good home form we have a chance of being in the mix for seventh place.

"The players were very low in the dressing room, it was an emotional night. But we have another big game at the weekend.

"We have got to pick ourselves up. It is a case of making sure we recover, clear our heads and go again.

"It will be difficult to re-focus and get back to Premier League action but we will take encouragement from this performance against Hamburg.

"It is important now we have a really strong finish. One of the things we have to do is address our away form, which has not been good enough."

City fell at the 16th hurdle in the UEFA Cup after starting out in July; they qualified through the Fair Play league last season.

While Hughes is disappointed they did not progress, he feels his side will reap the long-term benefits.

He added: "We have really enjoyed the UEFA Cup. It has been a long journey and we have put in a lot of effort, sometimes at the expense of our performances in the Premier League.

"It has been a learning experience for the group as a whole, myself included. We will benefit from the experience in the long term.

"People are beginning to understand what is going to happen here in the next few years and hopefully there will be more great European nights."

Hughes will monitor the fitness of Shaun Wright-Phillips in the next 48 hours. The midfielder has missed the last two games because of a nagging ankle injury.

Nigel de Jong is expected to return to the squad after sitting out the UEFA Cup match against his former club as he was ineligible.