Carling Cup report: West Brom perform brilliantly in second half to win match against Manchester City
Manchester City were looking to take on West Brom in the third round of matches in the Carling Cup. Both the teams were expected to feature a lot of changes from the teams that went on to win their respective Premier League matches
this past weekend.
Both the teams were going into the match on a high and with a mindset that they could, do it all. However experts prior to the match were quite unsure as to what would happen during the game. Some experts strongly believed that,
City would win the match with ease, while the others felt that West Brom had what it takes to cause major upsets.
The match kicked off with West Brom attacking City in the opening few minutes.
Many people believed that City were being dominated by the home side, however they soon realised that it was Roberto Mancini, using his tactical Italian approach to play the game. Despite the fact that West Brom had ten shots at
the City goal, they didn't manage to find the breakthrough in the opening forty five minutes. This was mainly due to the brilliant display that Shay Given was giving in the goal. It was fairly obvious the keeper was looking to impress potential suitors with
the performance that he was giving.
With West Brom attacking the City goal off a corner, Adam Johnson led the counter attack that resulted in the opening goal of the night. All the West Brom defenders were out of position as Johnson strolled through the centre of
the field with pace and laid off the ball for Jo, to rifle into the back of the net.
In the dying minutes of the first half, the home team were on the verge of getting their equalizer. Dorrans floated in a beautifully placed and timed cross that was met by the rising Bednar, but the player could not keep his header
on target and the half ended with City going into the tunnel with the one goal lead.
The second half got underway in the same manner as the first. City were looking to stay back and attack West Brom on the counter.
However what City failed to take into account was the fact that, if they stayed in their own half for far too long, things were bound to go bad for the team. That is exactly what happened. In the span of five minutes the game had
changed completely.
Between the fifty fifth and the sixtieth minute, West Brom snuck two goals in, to City's surprise. On the fifty fifth minute mark, Gianni Zuiverloon smashed a ball from distance and left Given with no chance of keeping the ball
out. That shot resulted in the scores being level at one goal apiece.
Three minutes later while City were regrouping, following the goal that they had just conceded, West Brom snuck another one past them. This time it was Simon Cox who got the goal. The striker cut back inside the defense and placed
his shot past the out stretching Given.
West Brom had easily been the better side on the night and the score line finally started to reflect on that. City introduced David Silva and James Milner to their side, to try and pull a goal or two back in the remainder of the
match. The changes proved to be quite useless as neither one of the players really made any impact.
The match ended with City being sent crashing out of the Carling Cup, at the hands of West Brom. Roberto Mancini, will have to put a lot of thought into what he plans on doing against Chelsea this coming weekend, because if the
manager continues to get these poor results, it won't be long before he is shown the door at the Eastlands.
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