EPL News: Half time report: Stoke City vs. Manchester City
Starting XI for Stoke City: Begovic, Wilkinson, Huth, Shawcross, Collins, Pennant, Whitehead, Delap, Etherington, Jones and Fuller. Subs: Sorensen, Higginbotham, Whelan, Gudjohnsen, Wilson, Walters and Sanli.
Starting XI for Manchester City: Hart, Richards, Toure, Kompany, Kolarov, De Jong, Milner, Barry, Silva, Balotelli and Tevez. Subs: Given, Wright-Phillips, Adam Johnson, Boateng, Lescott, Vieira and Jo.
Manchester City were held to a 0-0 stale mate at the Britannia Stadium, despite having the opportunity to be at least two goals up over the Potters but all that can be said is that their finishers were clearly not having one of the best nights.
Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli had various opportunities to find the back of the net but were held to some amazing defending by Stoke City. Stoke City however was the better team of the match as they missed a number of chances to be in the front seat.
Stoke started the match in a good tone, with Rory Delap finding Fuller in a good position, only for the striker to fire it wide. City would have to do a lot in the second half as Stoke has been stronger in the second half this season. It is a fact that if
only the second half was to be considered this season, Potters would be top of the table.
City have not been able to retain possession in the midfield area, leading to both Tevez and Balotelli dropping deep to get a few touches. The club Captain seems unhappy and frustrated of his team mates and was seen shouting whenever they would lose possession
cheaply. Manchester City made a mess of Delap’s long throw in the dying minutes of the first half and it took an impressive save from Joe Hart to deny Delap a chance to score.
At half time, there was nothing to choose in between the two sides and Roberto Mancini would have to introduce some pace and stability to the midfield in order to find the win.
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