Carling Cup – Half time review: Birmingham City versus Aston Villa
It was the home side, Birmingham City who began the match with a bang as they scored within the first fifteen minutes of the encounter. After pressurizing the Aston Villa defence with their persistent monopoly of possession inside the
first ten minutes of the match, Birmingham were awarded a penalty kick in the 11th minute of the encounter as Cameron Jerome played in Lee Bowyer inside the Villa penalty area. However, Bowyer was pulled down by Richard Dunne as the
referee pointed to the spot.
The penalty kick which was taken by Sebastian Larsson was successfully converted by the former Arsenal man into the match’s first goal for the Blues who took the lead in emphatic fashion against their city rivals. Villa looked shocked
at first as they conceded the first goal of the game but they slowly settled into the match as the likes of Hogg found more and more space on the ball in the midfield area. Gerard Houllier side combined one or two passes of their own around the 16th minute
mark and then forced three consecutive corners on the trot. Nonetheless, Villa were unsuccessful in making these set pieces count as the score line remained at 1-0 to Birmingham City.
In the 24th minute of the match, it was Zigic who was played in by Fahey from the Birmingham midfield. The Serbian was just about to bring the ball under his control but Aston Villa benefitted from some heroic defending
with the likes of Luke Young. The ex-Tottenham right back did extremely well do get to the big striker and nick the ball away. Zigic looked extremely lethargic in his movement towards the ball and thus he allowed the defender to sneak in before he got a touch
on the pass.
During 28th minute of the encounter, Birmingham nearly scored the second goal of the match but the linesman raised his flag for a foul inside the Villa penalty area. The Aston Vila defence was in chaos but they
were once again bailed out of trouble thanks to Scott Dann’s infringement on Brad Freidel in Villa’s goal. However, that wasn’t the end of the drama as in the 30th minute; Villa pulled one goal back as Agbonlahor scored their equalizing
goal.
The Englishman collected the ball on the left side of the penalty area and then produced a fine finish as he curled the ball into the right hand side of the Birmingham City goal past the despairing goalkeeper Ben Foster. Ashley Young and
Clark were involved in the build-up play to the goal for Villa as Houllier’s men found a way back into the match through some ingenious of their own. In the 33rd minute, Birmingham had a chance to take the lead again as Jerome was played
in by Zigic but the tall striker lobed his effort wide of the mark as Villa lived to fight another day.
Nonetheless, the first half came to an end as Birmingham failed to make their excessive possession of the ball count for a goal in the dying minutes of first period. The first half ended with the score line at 1-1.
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