English Premier League – First half review: Blackburn Rovers versus Aston Villa (1-0)
The match kicked off with Blackburn on the front foot as they controlled the majority of the possession in the first ten minutes of the match. The first chance of the match fell to none other than Christopher Samba, the tall Blackburn
centre back rose above everyone else inside the Aston Villa box but his ensuing header was over the bar as the scores remained level at nil all.
Blackburn were setup with their usual front man Jason Roberts who tried to hurry the likes of Richard Dunne in Aston Villa’s defence. Villa’s first proper attack came in the 12th minute of the match as Young and
Bannan combined brilliantly at the end of the Blackburn box, however the final shot by Bannan was off the target as Blackburn. Villa had their first injury worry of the match around the 14th minute mark as it was Luke Young who looked
to be injured for the Birmingham team but the right back recovered from the knock that he sustained during the match and carried on.
In the 15th minute, Villa almost opened the scoring as it was Ashley Young who went past Michel Salgado with ease. Young then took a try on Blackburn goals but Paul Robinson was on hand to palm the ball away for
an Aston Villa corner. The ensuing corner kick was wasted by Houllier’s team as they gave away possession far too easily near the corner flag after taking a short corner kick.
In the 17th minute, Stephen Warnock was at hand to save his team’s blushes as Jason Roberts almost got away a shot away on target. Warnock dived in with a good tackle to knock the ball away from the powerful striker
who almost got his shot off. It was a finely timed tackle by the ex-Liverpool man who did extremely well to spot the danger.
Blackburn maintained control of the ball from 20th minute till the 35th minute mark, during this time Villa were forced to play on the counter attack as Blackburn pilled on the pressure in
the direction of Brad Freidel who did very well to deal with some of the long balls that were thrown into the Villa penalty area. Barry Bannan was Villa’s best player in the first half as his diagonal balls to Ashley Young and Stewart Downing were the highlight
of the first half.
The first goal of the match came from Morten Gamst Pederson after Blackburn were awarded a free kick in the 46th minute of the match. Pederson’s free kick was marvellously struck as Brad Freidel’s touch was not
enough to keep it out of the Villa goal and with that Blackburn took the lead right in the dying moments of the match. The first half thus ended with the score line at 1-0 to the home side, Blackburn Rovers.
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