Europa League Match Analysis: Manchester City vs. Red Bull Salzburg – City cruise into next round (Part 2)
The Italian player was looking to prove a point and on the fourteenth minute, he almost made the breakthrough for the home side. Vieira the veteran City midfielder, who formerly played for Arsenal, went on to play an incisive pass that split the Salzburg
defence in half. Balotelli received the ball, opted to shoot the ball towards goal, and in return drew a fine save from Tremmel. However had the striker been a little less selfish, he would have noticed that Jo was wide open to his left and was open with a
clear shot on goal. Selfishness is something that everyone has come to expect off of Balotelli and it was this very selfishness that eventually led to the break through.
On the seventeenth minute mark, Balotelli managed to volley a shot with his left foot into the back of the net. Zabeleta the side back was the man who made a tremendous over lapping run to get into space to cross the ball with pin point accuracy towards
the Italian forward.
Therefore, on the seventeenth minute, City had the deserved break through with all the pressure that the team was forcing on to Salzburg, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
However, after the goal, the game quieted down a bit, with no real chance being created by either side. All of that changed as on the thirty first minute, Jo was put clear through on goal. However the player went down to a tackle and was caught screaming
for a penalty. There was no real contact on the player and the tackle was pretty well timed and as a result, the referee signalled play on and another opportunity was wasted by Jo.
The next and last opportunity of the opening half fell Milner’s way. The powerful midfielder strode down the right flank looking for an opportunity to pass the ball. However, as the defenders started to press upon him, the opportunity did not arise and Milner
opted to shoot instead. The shot was timed perfectly as it caught the keeper off guard; but the ball managed to drag itself just wide of the far post at the last second.
Soon after the first half came to a close with City leading at the break by a score line of one goal to nil.
The second half kicked off in comedic fashion for City as they had to kick things off with just ten men on the pitch. The teams prima donna Balotelli was left on the sidelines as he was busy fixing his gloves while the match got underway.
Eight minutes into the restart, City pulled of a silky passing move that almost resulted in a goal for the team. The team stormed forward thanks to a series of beautiful passes and resulted with Balotelli playing a cross-come-shot that needed a tap to be
put into the goal, however no City player managed to meet the ball and as a result, the chance went begging.
Continued in part 3
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