Half-time report: Birmingham City v Manchester City
Manchester City managed to take the lead in the dying moments of a truly exciting first half at St. Andrews Stadium against Birmingham City.
City employed a strong side to keep them in the hunt of the Premier League title in the 2010-11 season. Roberto http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mancini-c23323 chose to play the extremely talented Carlos Tevez alongside newly signed Edin Dzeko to set up an all-attacking formation. David Silva
was on the right wing with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gareth-Barry-c14423 and Nigel Di Jong took the centre of the midfield.
The Manchester-based club started the match in an emphatic fashion when captain Carlos Tevez found the back of the net within 4 minutes. The player found David Silva on the right wing and played a wonderful one-two with the Spaniard before lashing the ball
into the back of the net from close range.
Birmingham manager chose to play his best eleven, and gave summer acquisition Nikola Zigic his first start of 2011. He partnered with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Cameron-Jerome-c8284 upfront as Alex McLeish set up an attacking line-up. Birmingham took their chances after conceding the early
goal and were rewarded for their bravery when Zigic equalised in the 23rd minute.
However, City’s sheer star power proved too much for the hosts. The side had the chance to take the lead in the 30th minute when Dzeko found himself in a one-on-one situation with the former Manchester United goalkeeper http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ben-Foster-c7445. The shot-stopper
managed a brilliant save to deny the Bosnian goal machine his second goal on http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749 soil.
The highlight of the first half was the injury to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Micah-Richards-c25259, who clashed with teammate Nigel Di Jong. Both the players were bleeding from their heads, with Richards’ in a more critical condition than Di Jong. He had to be stretchered off the pitch while
Di Jong received some treatment and resumed the game.
City’s second goal came at the brink of half-time from the unlikeliest of sources.
Summer signing http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Aleksandar-Kolarov-c4475 lashed a free kick into the far corner which gave him his first goal in a Man City shirt and their manager was delighted to go into the dug out with their noses in front.
Tags: