West Ham United versus Manchester City – A look at the first 45 (Part 2)
Despite the occasional attack by West Ham United, Manchester City controlled the larger share of possession in the first half. The likes of Nigel de Jong and Yaya Toure held the midfield area together against Scott Parker and Mark
Noble. Manchester City’s defence was solid enough to deal with the frequent counter attacks that came their way, they tackled the threat of victor Obinna and Frederic Piquionne quite adeptly whereas West Ham united also succeeded in limiting City to shots
from outside the target bar.
In the 20th minute of the match, David Silva took a free kick for City near the West Ham United penalty area. However, the cross in by the Spanish midfielder was a bad one as it didn’t even clear the first man in the
West Ham defence. City looked quite blunt in attack in all honesty, as apart from Silva there was little creativity in a pre-dominantly defensive midfield. In the 22nd minute of the match, Scott Parker whizzed the ball out wide to junior Stanislas.
The winger took on Jerome Boateng and cut inside the German right back. However, the ensuing shot by the young winger was straight into Joe Hart’s hands.
In the 23rd minute of the match, West Ham were kept at parity with the visitors as Julien Faubert put in an amazing block on Gareth Barry’s attempted cross. From the ensuing corner, Scott Parker was in action as he blocked
Mario Balotelli’s effort as West Ham came away unscathed. In the 27th minute of the match, it was Yaya Toure, who embarked forward on a great run, but his product, which was a right-footed shot, was not good enough to beat Robert Green, who saved
the effort easily to keep his team on level terms.
However, Manchester City soon took the lead as Yaya Toure got on the end of a great Gareth Barry cut back. The ex-Barcelona midfielder took it with his left foot as the ball blitzed past the English goalkeeper, Robert Green, as
the score line reached 0-1 to the away side. In the 34th minute of the match, Mario Balotelli rose above Mark Noble to head the ball into the West Ham United goal, but the ball was cleared off the line by Faubert as West Ham survived the City attack.
Thus, the first half came to an end with City in the lead as the score line lay at rest at 0-1 to the away side. It was not an vintage performance by Roberto Mancini’s side, but it was enough to take a small lead into the first
half break.
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