English Premier League: Match Review - Birmingham City vs Wigan Athletic
Birmingham City played out a dull goalless draw against Wigan Athletic at the Saint Andrew’s stadium. Birmingham were favourites before the match to win this tie as they started with Ben Foster in goal. Foster was bought by Birmingham in the 2010 summer transfer window from Manchester United. The young English goalkeeper switched clubs in order to get more starting opportunities and in reality this was his sixth start in Birmingham’s sixth English Premier League season.
Ahead of Foster, Alex McLeish played a defensive four of Stephen Carr, Johnson, Dann and Liam Ridgewell. Birmingham’s midfield was made up of Larsson who played on the right side of midfield. In central midfield, Ferguson accompanied Craig Gardner whilst Bowyer occupied his usual berth on the left side of Birmingham’s midfield. Up front, the Scottish manager went with Hleb and Jerome. Alexander Hleb joined Birmingham City in the summer transfer window from Barcelona but it was only his second start of the season for Birmingham in the English Premier League.
Birmingham’s bench included the likes of Kevin Phillips, Derbyshire, Fahey and Zigic alongside Jiranek. On the other hand, Wigan were expecting to at least earn a draw in this encounter but their away form going into this game was absolutely woeful. Roberto Martinez opted for Rodallega as his team’s lone striker who was supported by a midfield five of, N’Zogbia, McCarthy, Stam, Thomas and Diame. At the back, the Spanish manager played Boyce, Gohouri, Alcaraz and Figueroa. Al Habsi was used in goal by Wigan instead of the former English international, Chris Kirkland.
Wigan dominated the start of the match but in the very first minute, Larsson was on fire for Birmingham as the former Arsenal midfielder bombed down the right hand side of Birmingham’s attack. After going past a couple of defenders, Larsson delivered a brilliant cross inside the Wigan penalty area. At first the Wigan defence headed the ball away but the clearance fell to Hleb whose volleyed shot missed the Wigan goal by a few inches.
Wigan did very well to capitalize on their midfield numbers as they held control of the possession early on in the match. Their first shot on target came in the 13th minute as their midfielder, Charles N’Zogbia rushed forward and let loose a magnificent shot which was heading towards the roof of the Birmingham net but the effort was expertly palmed away by Ben Foster. In the 25th minute, Birmingham almost found the back of the net after launching a counter attack of their own. However, Jerome couldn’t keep his header on target for the Blues and the ball rolled out for a goal kick for Wigan Athletic.
Just before the half ended, Birmingham grew in influence in the match and once again matched Wigan stride for stride. Johnson did well to get on the end of Larsson’s free kick which was taken from the right side of Birmingham’s defence. The Englishman failed to maintain the required accuracy levels for his team to take the lead and the first half ended with both teams dead locked at nil all. The first chance of the second half fell to Wigan who did very well to give the ball to N’Zogbia. Charles took his shot but the effort lacked sufficient control to make Ben Foster work for another save.
The big turning moment of the second half came when Craig Gardner was sent off for Birmingham City. Gardener lunged into a two footed tackle in the 88th minute of the match against Franco Di Santo. The former Chelsea man was lucky to get away unscathed but Gardner was immediately shown a red card by the referee.
Birmingham held on in the last minutes of the match with ten men to gain a point from the encounter, as the match ended with the scoreline at 0-0.
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