English Premier League – Half time review: Blackburn Rovers versus Sunderland
The Rovers and the Black cats played out an interesting first half of their eighth game of the season at Ewood Park. Sunderland were the team on the top during the first ten minutes of the match as they started with the likes of
Steed Malbranque and Daniel Welbeck in attack down the left hand side of their midfield area. This duo of the Frenchman and the Englishman was especially threatening during the first half for Steve Bruce’s side who started the match at the 15th placed
spot in the English Premier League table.
Despite the fact that Blackburn were playing with some crafty players such as El Hadji Diouf up front alongside Nikola Kalinic, they resorted early on in the game for a long ball strategy. They tried to utilize the pace of Diouf
in behind Sunderland’s defence which included the likes of Phillip Bardsley. The ex-Manchester United defender started for Sunderland at the left back spot regardless of the fact that his recognized position is at the right side of defence.
The first real controversial moment of the match came in the 11th
minute of the match when Lee Cattermole went down inside the Blackburn Rover’s penalty area. It was quite a dramatic fall by the young English midfielder and at first it looked as a legitimate claim for a penalty kick but in reality it was a simulated
dive by Cattermole as he tried to influence the referee into giving a spot kick. However the referee did well to wave away the protests by most of the Sunderland team who were fooled by their team mate’s antics to win a foul.
Blackburn’s first real chance of the game came in the 16th minute of the first half when Morten Gamst Pedersen’s free kick almost caught the young Sunderland goalkeeper out. Nonetheless, Simon Mignolet finally dealt
with the situation competitively as he palmed the ball over the top of the crossbar. Blackburn capitalized on this situation and gained confidence from thereon in, they had a good succession of corner kicks following the free kick but unfortunately they couldn’t
make it count in the end.
Sunderland broke brilliantly in the 22nd minute of the match but it was Ahmed Al-Muhammadi’s wastefulness down the right hand side of the Black cat’s attack which let them down as a unit. However, it was in the 25th minute
that Darren Bent had the best chance to open the scoring for Sunderland as the English national team striker capitalized on a mistake in the Blackburn defence. As a result he was released through on ball but eventually the ex-Tottenham striker could not finish
the chance. Bent’s shot struck Paul Robinson, the Blackburn goalkeeper in the stomach and went out for a corner.
Bent’s participation in the match was a surprise in the first place as the striker’s fitness was in doubt before the encounter kicked off since he had sustained an injury while on international football duty with Fabio Capello’s
English national team squad. In the 33rd minute, Blackburn almost made Sunderland sweat blood as Kalinic connected accurately with an El Hadji Diouf cross but the striker’s header went just wide of the mark as the score line remained stagnant at
nil all.
The turning point of the match came at the end of the first half when Chris Samba, the Blackburn defender and their captain were sent off by the referee for his tug on Daniel Welbeck’s shirt. As Samba was the last man behind in
defence for the Rovers, the referee had no option but to show the tall centre back the red card. Luckily for Blackburn, Sunderland could not take the full benefit of the set piece that was awarded to them and thus the first half came to a conclusion with the
score deadlocked at nil all.
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