Monday 23 August 2010

City v Liverpool (2000 GMT)

24/08/2010 Venue: City of Manchester Stadium Att: 47,087

Starting Line up
Man City: Hart, Richards, Toure, Kompany, Lescott, De Jong, Toure Yaya, Barry, Milner, Adam Johnson, Tevez. Subs: Given, Zabaleta, Wright-Phillips, Adebayor, Silva, Vieira, Jo.
Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Skrtel, Carragher, Agger, Jovanovic, Gerrard, Lucas, Kuyt, Torres, Ngog. Subs: Jones, Aurelio, Pacheco, Kyrgiakos, Maxi, Babel, Poulsen.
Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire)

It was many worries that City play against Liverpool, as they drew 5 times against them in 7 encounters. Especially after a poor performance against Spurs last weekend, I really did not expect today's comprehensive performance.

City, as starting line above shows, were without Balotelli, due to his foot injury and Kolarov and Boateng, who still to make his debut, missing due to ankle and foot injuries. Liverpool were unchanged, apart from Mascherano, who is speculated to move away from the Kops.

Match
It was the performance I never expected. Throughout the game, City were more creative and willing to get the ball. Right from the start, City dominated and, on 13th minutes, Gareth Barry scored after clever works from Adam Johnson and James Milner in the right wing, which made the goal possible.

Despite some efforts from Liverpool, they continued to struggle to dominate. After some tremendous midfield display from our 3 "defensive midfielders" Liverpool weren't able to challenge Joe Hart during the 1st half. Complete turnaround from Spurs match.

City continued to break in the second half and after absorbing Liverpool's possession, it was Tevez, who scored from the corner, which was initially headed towards the net by Micah Richards. 2-0 and it seemed Liverpool were done at City of Manchester Stadium.

Not quite though. After 2nd goal, Liverpool moved with more urgency and they almost found back of the net via their talisman Steven Gerrard, David N'gog and Fernando Torres but their shot put away by either the post or Hart's brilliance. City's defense held Liverpool at bay, whereas our attack came up once against through tip-toeing feet of Johnson, who earned the penalty via Skrtel's clumsiness. Tevez converted it and it was game over from that point. Sheikh Mansour. Did you enjoy that?


Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan and Khaldoon Al Mubarak - Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan makes Eastlands debut



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