MANCHESTER CITY 1 - 0 STOKE CITY
Toure 70'
Yaya Toure proved the difference once more for Manchester City against
Stoke as his second half strike by the Ivory Coast International, helped guide
the Blues to a 1-0 victory over former City boss Mark Hughes and his tough Stoke
City side at the Etihad Stadium. With
Chelsea picking up three points prior to City`s game taking place, their 1-0
win over Everton made this game even more vital for Manuel Pellegrini side to keep
up the pressure on both Chelsea and Arsenal too as they wanted to still be in
reach of the Capital sides.
City made a couple of changes to the side that lost 2-0 to Barcelona during
midweek in the Champions League 1st leg. As Frenchman Samir Nasri
and Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko came in for Jesus Navas and seen Martin
Demichelis who was woeful in the defeat to the Catalan side, surprisingly
retain his place in the starting 11, but was moved back to Defence where he and
Vincent Kompany were the centre-back pairing.
It would be fair to say that City would be having to get used to the
sight of Red and White stripes for a couple of weeks as Stoke City donned their
traditional colours and City would see Sunderland wearing the same in the cup
final a week later. However talk of the cup final was premature as they had to
get past Stoke first and it would be fair to say that came to play for a point
at the Etihad. Mark Hughes`s men played for a majority of the game with 11 men
behind the ball as they hoped to inflict another clean sheet on the home side
to which City had failed to score in their previous two league outings and seen
Stoke hoping to pick up a vital point down at the wrong end of the table.
Serbian defender Aleksander Kolarov manage to see City finally get
behind the Stoke defence in the 5th minute, after he whipped in a
wicked ball that saw Asamovic Begovic in the opposition`s goal having to push
it away from danger. City found Stoke`s
resistance very hard to break down in the game and the home side didn`t help
themselves either with them trying to walk the ball in to away side net too.
Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho then had an effort from outside the box tipped
over from Begovic, with the goalkeeper seeing the shot come straight at him. Pablo Zabaleta
then had a shot blocked for a corner kick as Stoke was frustrating City in
search of an opener.
 |
| Kolarov on the attack for City PIC: mcfclatino.blogspot |
Stoke nearly opened the scoring themselves in the 21st
minute, when a low strike by Charlie Adam saw Joe Hart get down really well to
tip it out for a corner and seen the Staffordshire outfit begin to think, that
they could possibly do better than just a point in this game. Yaya Toure then decided to try his luck from
outside the penalty area too, but his attempted curling shot was easily dealt
with by Begovic and seen Stoke restrict them to shots from long range.
Samir Nasri was next to have a pop for the
home side, with a lovely build up by City`s Spanish duo of David Silva and
Alvaro Negredo, which seen the striker lay the ball off to Nasri and his shot
was blocked by former City player Glenn Whelan for another corner kick. Nasri
took a short corner to Silva and after they messed up what they were trying to
do, Nasri managed to regain the ball and put a floated ball into the area which
saw Negredo have the ball and he fired wide of the target with the Spanish striker
going through a dry spell at the moment.
Another neat build up of short passes then saw Silva, Toure and Negredo
all link up well together, before the pass back to Toure saw the Ivorian snatch
at his shot and see it go wide of the target.
Stoke`s defence was taking a battering by the home side, but they were
still holding their ground, Kolarov then
saw his low driven shot come turn into a cross outside the area and the ball
teased Negredo and Dzeko, with neither one of them able to find a touch to
direct it goal wards.
Edin Dzeko then came close to the game`s first goal, when another great
move starting with David Silva saw Dzeko take the pass and play a little one-two
with his strike partner Negredo and his curling shot went just inches wide of
the post, with City pushing hard. The Blues had one last attack in the first
half and seen Fernandinho unable to fully strike the ball as clean as he would have
like to have done and saw it skim across the grass to the grasp of Begovic.
 |
| Toure scores winner City PIC: BBCSPORTS |
Edin Dzeko had another effort fly over the bar in the second half as
the Bosnian striker couldn`t get set correct to take a better shot. Alvaro
Negredo then saw him brought off for the Montenegro forward in Stevan Jovetic
as Pellegrini looked to inject some pace into attack and saw him the forward have
a blast, that almost caught Begovic out with the Stoke keeper fumbling the
ball. Unfortunately for the forward he was forced to leave the pitch soon after
with a possible recurrence of a hamstring injury and seen Javi Garcia replace
him. Then after all the hard work and pressure on the Potters defence, City was
finally rewarded with a goal and who else but Yaya Toure scored the goal. The Ivory
Coast midfielder has a great scoring record against Stoke, with him scoring the
FA Cup final winner a few seasons back between the two sides, so if anyone was
to find the back of the net of the Stoke net it was certainly going to be him.
It all came from a Samir Nasri pass to Kolarov down the Stoke right, as
Kolarov put in a ball that caught the Stoke defence out and even Toure himself.
It saw the midfielder do brilliantly well to correct his footing at the last
minute to turn the ball home with a fairly ugly finish, but no one in a Blue shirt
cared how it went in as City led 1-0 after 70 minutes. They should definitely have made it 2-0 a
couple minutes later, when Toure was his old self again dispossessing a Stoke
player in midfielder and saw him fend off a challenge, before passing out to
Silva who put a nice ball across to the back post for Dzeko to finish off bit and
the striker managed to inexplicably, hit the ball against the back of his own leg
and saw the ball get cleared away with Stoke fans cheering and the home fans
letting Dzeko know what they thought of him. Dzeko after the ball was cleared then gave the
post a good kick in frustration and seen Stoke still alive in the game.
 |
| Edin Dzeko misses a sitter PIC: M.E.N Sport |
Javi Garcia then had a go from
outside the area himself as his fierce drive had Begovic scrambling to his
right, but was able to palm it away for a corner kick to keep it 1-0. Manchester
City managed to hold onto to win and see them stay in 3rd place,
knowing that if they were to win their game in hand that they can move top of
the table on goal difference. The blues now have a league cup final to prepare
for and see them hopefully lift some silverware early with them still technically challenging for
the quadruple, though Sunderland their opponents will have something to say
about that you can guarantee come Sunday.
