Manchester City v Chelsea

[Bluemoon]

Manchester City 4 - Chelsea 3

Thursday 23 May 2013

Busch Stadium, St Louis

Att:48,263

• Garcia 62'
  
• Džeko 64' & 85'
  
• Richards 90'
  

• Hart (Wright 45')
  
• Clichy
  
• Rekik (Boyata 79')
  
• Kompany (Richards 45')
  
• Zabaleta (Maicon 61 ')
  
• Garcia
  
• Silva (Nasri 45')
  
• Y Touré (Huws 45')
  
• Agüero (Džeko 45')
  
• Tevez
  
• Rusnak (Milner 61')
  

A record crowd at Busch Stadium witnessed City dramatically reverse a three-goal deficit to win a thrilling encounter.
Goals from Javi Garcia, an Edin Dzeko brace and a last minute Micah Richards winner cancelled out earlier strikes from Ba, Azpilicueta and Oscar in a feast of attacking football in St Louis.

It was a deserved win on the balance of play on a night when the 48,263 fans present were treated to a first-class exhibition from two of the Premier League’s most exciting outfits.

Since touching down on US soil on Monday, City’s players have spent precious little time holed up in their hotel rooms admiring the Manhattan skyline.

Over the course of the past three days, the Blues have straddled Gotham to reveal the new Nike kit, dropped in on the New York Giants, revisited Lexington Academy and ferried over to Staten Island to donate equipment to a junior team hit by last year’s Hurricane Sandy.

All that and the small matter of helping launch the 20th MLS franchise, New York City FC on Tuesday morning.

Leaving the Big Apple behind for the time being on this breathless post-season tour, City jetted into St Louis on Thursday morning to take on Rafa Benitez’s Chelsea in a match which sold out in just 20 minutes.

It had been announced in the build-up to kick-off at the iconic home of the St Louis Cardinals that City and Chelsea had donated $45k from ticket sales to victims of this week’s devastating tornado in Oklahoma.

Players from both sides wore black armbands to pay tribute to the 24 victims of the catastrophic three-day storm and also took a moment of rememberance before kick-off dedicated to Drummer Lee Rigby from Middleton who was tragically killed in London on Wednesday.

On the field in Missouri, Brian Kidd oversaw his third game in interim charge and named a strong line-up which featured Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure, Carlos Tevez, Vincent Kompany and David Silva.

Also included alongside this flight of international A-list talent was Netherlands u19 defender Karim Rekik and Slovakian youth international forward Albert Rusnak - the latter making his debut appearance at first-team level for the Blues.

With an enviable record against the new Europa League holders, City were aiming to record a fourth win in five games against Chelsea this season and Aguero almost provided the perfect start after two minutes but his instinctive strike into the back of the net following a clever Tevez through ball was correctly ruled offside.

Despite City’s early domination, it was Chelsea who took the lead a quarter of an hour in when Demba Ba met a teasing cross from Juan Mata with a header past the stranded Joe Hart.

Aguero almost made amends immediately after the opening goal with a swerving, dipping effort which came back off the outside of the post with Cech beaten.

Despite the scoreline, City were playing the more eye-catching brand of football in the first period, with the telepathic link-up play between Tevez, Aguero and Silva often a joy to behold.

Somehow City found themselves two down three minutes before half-time when Rekik was harshly adjudged to have pulled down Mata just inside the box and Azpilicueta stepped up to clinically dispatch the spot-kick.

City had 16 shots to Chelsea’s six in the first-half and four of the period’s five corners but goals win games as the Blues have learned the hard way on so many occasions over the last 12 months.

Dzeko, Richards, Richard Wright, Samir Nasri and another first-team debutant, Emyr Huws, were introduced at the break, along with Fernando Torres, Oscar and David Luiz for the opposition.

As is usually the case when so many changes are made in friendlies, the game became fragmented for a spell and Chelsea were able to capitalise and extend their lead five minutes after the break courtesy of Oscar who pounced on a loose ball and rounded Wright beautifully to score.

Despite the daunting three-goal deficit, City continued to press forward and reduced the arrears to just one with a quick-fire double around the hour mark.

First, Javi Garcia slotted home nicely after the ball fell to him from a deflected Maicon volley on 62, before Dzeko coolly finished from an incisive James Milner through ball two minutes later.

The excellent Gael Clichy presented Milner with the chance to complete an epic comeback on 71 minutes but Chelsea’s substitute goalkeeper Jamal Blackman pulled off an excellent save to keep the Londoners’ noses in front.

The 19-year old stopper was required again moments later to repel City’s 26th shot of the night – Dzeko again forcing the issue after chesting down and firing for goal in one classy movement.

City pressed on in search of the equaliser and finally got it seven minutes from time after Huws won back possession in the final third, finding Tevez who played it in for Dzeko to sidefoot past the helpless Blackman.

It was no less than City deserved but better was still to come as the game entered stoppage time, when Garcia nodded into the path of Richards to slide in from close range to finish off an incredible turnaround and a fitting dénouement to a riveting spectacle.



Watch the video here:

[Bluemoon]

Manchester City 5 - Chelsea 3

Saturday 25 May 2013

Yankee Stadium, New York

Att:39,462

• Barry 2'
  
• Nasri 26' & 73'
  
• Milner 55'
  
• Džeko 85'
  

• Hart (Wright 45')
  
• Zabaleta (Maicon 45')
  
• Kompany (c) (Lescott 45')
  
• Boyata
  
• Kolarov
  
• Barry
  
• Y Touré (Rodwell 45')
  
• Silva (Milner 45')
  
• Nasri
  
• Agüero (Razak 45')
  
• Tevez (Džeko 45')
  

How to top the seven-goal thriller of St Louis? Turn it up to eight.
Two games, two cities, 87,725 fans and 15 goals.

The numbers suggest those opting to look in on this post-season tour made sound investments as City clinched a first ever win in the Big Apple.

Meeting for the second time in three days, the Premier League's second and third placed teams served up another match which was less slow burning art-house cinema than a popcorn-friendly summer box office smash.

Two spectacular goals from Samir Nasri and strikes from James Milner, Edin Dzeko and Gareth Barry were answered by a Ramires brace and a Juan Mata special in this latest US blockbuster forged in Manchester and London.

Since jetting back into New York from Missouri straight after Thursday’s game, City’s players have been out engaging with the local community again, putting on some surprise soccer schools for delighted local children across the five boroughs.

Of course City announced a historic partnership with the Yankees on Tuesday to form the 20th MLS expansion team New York City FC, so it was perhaps apt that the Blues should sign off for summer by stepping out onto the hallowed turf of Yankee Stadium for their final engagement.

Brian Kidd opted to make four changes from the team, bringing Dedryck Boyata, Aleksandar Kolarov, Barry and Nasri in for Karim Rekik, Gael Clichy, Albert Rusnak and Javi Garcia.

That meant there was to be an all-Belgian centre-back partnership of Boyata and Vincent Kompany and an all-Argentine front pairing of Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero, the latter of which was celebrating a one-year contract extension announced earlier in the day.

Because of that incredible 4-3 comeback win in Missouri on Thursday, football enthusiasts on the other side of the Atlantic had been given an accurate crash course in the Manchester City high wire act and would have been hoping for another freewheeling 90 minutes.

They would not be disappointed.

In Thursday’s match, City came out swinging with only a notch on the scoresheet missing from a perfect first-half performance but this time the Blues wasted no time in finding the clinical edge, racing into the lead with two minutes on the clock through Barry.

Aguero capitalised on an uncharacteristically wayward pass from Oscar and fired for goal, forcing Hilario to spill into the path of a grateful Barry to gleefully tap home.

Chelsea thought they’d equalised nine minutes later when Ba beat the offside trap to latch onto a long ball from David Luiz but unbeknown to the Senegalese striker and most of the crowd inside Yankee Stadium, his shot was the wrong side of the post.

If that was a moment of comic farce, the sublime was to follow and it was the team in sky blue that provided it after 25 minutes.

City brought Richard Wright on for Hart at the break but unfortunately the understudies’ first act was to pick the ball out of the net after Luiz’s incisive long ball found substitute Ramires who classily rounded the keeper before slotting home.

Wright was joined in appearing after the break by Abdul Razak, Dzeko, Maicon, Jack Rodwell, Joleon Lescott, as well as the tireless Milner who restored City’s two-goal lead on 55 minutes with a clinical volley across Petr Cech after good work in the build-up from Rodwell and Dzeko.

Milner could have doubled his tally a few minutes later when he stung Cech’s fingertips with a drive but it was Ramires who found the game’s fifth goal and his second, when he turned home from a Torres cross with 20 to go.

The goalscoring wasn’t finished there though and the goal of the game was still to come courtesy of Nasri, who topped off a special individual performance with a quite incredible solo goal which included a flip-flap, a rapid exchange of passes and an impetuous dink over Cech.

Mata then clipped a wonderful free-kick in off the underside of the crossbar to make it 4-3 before Dzeko thumped in the final goal of the night from 20 yards to leave Stateside City fans wondering if they could face Chelsea in the US every week.

Perhaps defensive connoisseurs won’t look back fondly on these 180 minutes of football but the rest of us can reflect on two games of first-class entertainment on the world's finest stage.

Thank you New York City, it’s been a blast and we will be back – of that you can be sure…

[trautmansdropkick]

Have watched both of these games on ESPN and, allowing for the fact that they were definitely friendlies (except for the occasional input of David Luiz, I must say that, to me, these are the sort of games that the Prem needs to attract our Colonial cousins in the US. Both teams played in a style that had a hispanic influence and, judging from the number of Hispanics in the USA (Spanish now being the most popularly used language) and the way that they mixed this style with the goold old pace of the Prem, to please both the St Louis Bosnians and New York Europeans, it was an excellent way to properly introduce he USA to the Premiership.
Maybe, just maybe, now that Gill is out of the Prem committees now and purple nose is out to grass, we will be able to get some more unbiased leadership from the Premier League 'old farts' now.