Full time report: Manchester City Vs Blackburn Rovers (1-1)
Starting XI for Manchester City: Hart (GK), Richards, Kolo, Kompany, Lescott, Viera, Yaya, Milner, Wright Phillips, Johnson Tevez
Subs: Given, Zabaleta, Boyata, Barry, Silva, Jo, Santa Cruz
Blackburn Rovers: Robinson, Samba, Givet, Nelson, Kalinic, El Hadi Diouf, Grella, Pedersen, Salgado, Jones, Biram Diouf
In what was a truly entertaining game, Manchester City were held to a 1-1 draw at the City of Manchester Stadium. There was no late drama for this Manchester based club as even though the hosts went dangerously close to scoring the winning goal, yet it was the diehard defending of the visitors which denied them all three points from this encounter.
The hosts started the match in emphatic fashion and got close to opening the score sheet for the high spending club. In the opening exchanges, City looked positive and maintained most of the possession. Trouble struck the City camp when, at the 23rd minute, the visitors took a shock lead. Rovers cleared a Manchester City corner to play a long ball towards advancing attacker Kalinic. There was a mix up between who should claim the ball between Toure and goal keeper Joe Hart on which Kalinic capitalized. The youngster couldn’t miss an open goal as he rolled the ball to the back of the net. Manchester City’s jam packed stadium experienced pin drop silence after the goal as City looked dumb founded. The Blues then started a much needed come back, but Rovers were still ahead at half time.
In the second half, Manchester City kept most of the possession. The equalizing goal came in the 55th minute by former Arsenal midfielder Patrick Vieira. The Defensive midfielder passed the ball to Tevez and made an impressive run into the box. Tevez then fed the advancing midfielder, who finished the move from close range. That move showed the old quality of Patrick Vieira of his Arsenal days, where he was part of the Invincibles.
With City at level terms, the home side looked to capitalize. Rovers made their second substitute, when Grella was substituted to make way for N’Zonzi. City also replaced goal scorer Patrick Vieira with England International Gareth Barry on the 66th minute. Argentinean forward Carlos Tevez went close to taking the lead but the post denied the player of the chance. On the 72nd minute, Barry shot from range and goal keeper Robinson manages to nudge the ball wide for a corner. City stepped up the pace as they looked to find the winning goal.
The pace of the game has increased and City went very close to score a goal. Carlos Tevez expertly set up Jo with a defence splitting pass but was denied by English goalkeeper Paul Robinson at the last moment. At the 81st minute, Chimbonda was booked for his blatant handball. Adam Johnson was brought down in the penalty box by Samba by the referee was not interested.
Adam Johnson was replaced by Spanish winger David Silva at the 84th minute. Johnson received a sound ovation from the home crowd as he shaked his head while making way for 21 million pound David Silva. In the dying moment of the match, Manchester City went dangerously close to win the match. With Four minutes added on, Carlos Tevez dodged the keeper but a last inch block by Samba on the goal line denied the opportunity. Jo tried to follow up with a shot but Samba again denied the chance. That was the closest that Manchester City went to scoring the winning goal, but it was too late for the 300 million pound team. The team would be highly disappointed by their inability to score even after making opportunity after opportunity to score. The team would be frustrated by the draw and know that they have lost two points. Adam Johnson was named the man of the match by the Manchester City officials. Even though City won 13 corners in this contest, yet they couldn’t find the winning goal and would be heart broken by this result. At the end, the score line stated, Manchester 1-1 Blackburn Rovers.
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