English Premier League: First Half Report - Aston Villa versus Birmingham City
The match started off at a frightening pace as Aston Villa attacked in the very first minute. The Villains started with Emile Heskey in attack whereas Ashley Young played just behind him in the hole position. In
the 11th minute of the match, the referee brandished his yellow card as Reo Coker was brought down by Gardiner. Gardiner was booked as a result of his late challenge on the English midfielder who was lucky to escape a serious injury
as the tackle came in with quite a lot of force.
In the 25th minute of the match, Emile Heskey collided with Birmingham’s central defender Dann. The former English international centre forward went down in pain but he was quickly taken
off the field for medical treatment, after which he returned to action for the Villains. Both the teams found it hard to get in their stride early on in the first half as the midfield area turned out to be the real battlefield section of the match. However,
in the 28th minute, Reo Coker almost opened the scoring for Villa after he deflected a clearance from Ben Foster back towards the Birmingham goal. The ex-Manchester United goalkeeper was lucky that the ball didn’t creep into his own
net as Birmingham escaped a real scare.
Villa looked to play route one football for most of the first half as they knocked long balls to Emile Heskey. The striker was isolated at times in attack but he tried his best to make something out of the passes
that were thrown his way. Birmingham had a good spell of possession in from the 30th minute to the 34th minute as Hleb and co tried to penetrate the miserly Villa defence. However it was Villa who cleared the
ball in the end as the attack came to a halt. Despite the fact that Villa opened the match with much more ambition it was Birmingham who controlled much of the ball once the game had settled down. Zigic played in attack for Birmingham but the Blues were careful
in their use of the striker whose main ability has often been seen as heading the ball.
At the 36th minute mark, Birmingham had a genuine appeal for a hand ball inside the Aston Villa penalty area but the referee waved their protests away. From the replays it was confirmed that
Reo Coker had handled the ball while trying to control it in the penalty area. In the 38th minute of the match, Nikola Zigic was given a yellow card for elbowing Aston Villa’s defender Collins.
The centre back was left on the floor due to the impact to his head but he recovered in time to resume his defensive duties. Right before the end of the first half, Stephen Warnock was shown a yellow card by the
referee for his dangerous challenge on Alexander Hleb. The first half eventually came to a conclusion with the score line at 0-0. It was a frustrating first half for both the sides which was dominated in terms of possession by Birmingham City.
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