Saturday, 25 February 2012

Manchester City 4 FC Porto 0

Not really a match report as such - not really much point for big matches like this, there are hundreds of other reports about!

Funny though to see it being called a thrashing, and reports saying City cruised through this one... yes the scoreline suggests that, and once the second goal of the night went in it was comfortable, but in truth after Aguero scored after 20 seconds it was Porto who enjoyed the bulk of possession and chances until the game reached the 75th minute.

City played a long ball game - not like them at all this season, but they were clearly set up to catch Porto on the break, and also as City's usual passing game is what Porto are used to in the Portuguese league it'd play into their hands.

The BBC report says "City's grip on the game was firm", but actually scroll down to the stats - 18 Porto shots to 9 City shots, and Porto bossed possession for the most part. City did ride their luck for large parts of this one, with a series of Porto free kicks narrowly going wide or over, and dangerous crosses not quite finding a Porto player. If City hadn't had this luck, it might have been a totally different scoreline.

Credit to City for taking Porto apart following the second goal, with Porto having a player receiving a second yellow card for mouthing off at the linesman in the immediate aftermath of that goal - credit to the ref for booking those Porto players who continually protested vociferously when things didn't go their way.

No comments:

Post a Comment