West Ham United versus Manchester City – A look at the first 45 (Part 1)
The match started with West Ham United in an attacking formation, a setup that asked questions of Manchester City’s defence early on. However, the visitors controlled much of the possession in the first five minutes of the encounter.
David Silva was a pivotal figure for City as he cut inside from his berth on the left wing to good effect.
The first chance of the match fell to Manchester City and quite surprisingly, it came through Pablo Zabaleta. City’s left back surged forward and then played the ball to Jo. Jo squared the ball to Mario Balotelli, who almost sealed
the move off with a good finish, but his attempt on target went wide off the mark as the score line remained at 0-0. In the 5th minute of the encounter, Scott Parker was called up by the referee for a cynical challenge on Yaya Toure. The crowd was
anticipating a booking for the West Ham midfielder, but the referee practiced common sense and let the Englishman off with a warning.
In the 6th minute of the match, Nigel de Jong surged forward and played a one-two with Toure. The Dutch midfielder crossed the ball into the City penalty area, but Tomkins was at hand to head the ball away for a corner.
The ensuing set piece was a very bad one for City, who wasted it as West Ham United regained possession. They broke forward but could not capitalize on the chance that fell their way, as the score line remained stagnant.
In the 9th minute of the match, Scott Parker tried his luck on target for West Ham United but the ex-Chelsea player was wayward with his shot as City regained possession. Nonetheless, it was an ambitious attempt by the
midfielder who was West Ham’s midfield engine in the first half of the match. In the 12th
minute of the first half, De Jong came down hard on Frederic Piquionne as the West Ham striker gathered control of the ball. The referee spotted the infringement and awarded the home side the free kick. However, the set piece was a wasteful one by Junior
Stanislas as the ball sailed away over the Manchester City goal and went out for a goal kick to the away side.
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