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Wednesday, 16 February 2011

Aris-Manchester City Minute-by-Minute Report (0-0 Full Time).

By: Thad | February 15th, 2011
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Manchester City and Aris have battled to a 0-0 draw in Greece in the Europa League. Not the greatest of matches, but I watched it so you don’t have to! Read on for a minute-by-minute report!

City aim to bounce back from derby defeat and kick off an outstanding evening of European football in the first leg against Greek side Aris. City will try to make things easier for themselves by grabbing some goals and a victory in this away leg. Can they do it? Read on to find out.

Kickoff is here!

1st minute. This is the first match of 2011 in UEFA competitons. City are in their usual blue. Hart has to come out and grab that dangeous cross in the box on Aris’s first attack. The home side are wearing yellow.

2nd minute. City have Silva, Wright-Phillips, Richards, Tevez, K Toure, Y Toure, Barry, Hart, Dzeko, Boateng, Kolarov on the pitch today. Strong, attack-minded side.

3rd min. City’s first-eve match competitively against a Greek side. There are supposed to be a thousand City fans in the stadium but you can’t hear them as yet.

4th min. Dzeko called offside there on that run–that looked a very tight one, it was a good ball down the left flank.

5th min.Tevez yet to touch the ball in almost 5 minutes of play. There he is coming deep to play a nice one-touch pass as City establish a good spell of possession.

6th min. (We’ve fallen behind real time on the blog but should be caught up by the end of the match, just about anyway.)

7th min. Really good home crowd for this one–flag-waving fans wearing yellow everywhere, loads of yellow banners ringing the pitch.

8th min. Early indications are this game may be a bit of a scrap.

9th min. Dzeko with good work there to keep possession, the ball is worked around to the left side and then to Silva in the center with a good shot that is parried away and then cleared to safety. Nice left-footed effort by the Spaniard.

10th foul. Foul by City 30 yards from goal. Neto looks likely to take this for Aris–it’s more like 35 yards out. Instead Neto runs over the ball, and SWP stops Neto on the left as City win a throw.

11th min. Silva leaves it for Barry on the left then gets it back. Tevez now to Richards, Richards and Tevez then play a good one-two into the box and City have a corner.

12th min. Richards went down in the box but didn’t look like a penalty. Kolarov with a dangerous looking ball but Tevez can only hit it with his thigh after Y Toure leaped and couldn’t reach it.
13th min. City play the ball smartly around the back.

14th min. Tevez with a nice steal of the ball, he turns and fires from 30 yards but it’s nowhere close to on target. That was ambitious!

15th min. Aris bring it down the left but there’s SWP coming to poke the ball away and City eventually get a thrown on the ir right side. City swing play to the left and set up shop again. Great City move almost culminates in a goal, Dzeko had a shot from 6 yards that the keeper saved! Tevez may have gotten in his way there.

16th min. City come again, Tevez is fouled a couple of yards outside the area as he dribbled after a nice diagonal through ball by Dzeko.

17th min. Kolarov takes but it’s dealt with. City keep the ball.

18th min. Barry with a bad ball there and Aris had a great chance to break but City won it back first. SWP tries to dribble around his defender but there’s no obstruction call there as he’s blocked off. City wiht a throw down the right.

19th min. Now Aris play a good ball down the left and manage to get a shot off that is deflected and falls weakly to Hart. Boateng cuts out the next pass and City bring it away.

20th min. Y Toure with a foul there near midfield. City have it back though and this time it’s Aris with a foul near the halfway line.

21st min. Kolarov wins a corner down the left and he will go ahead and take it. Nice bending ball finds Dzeko’s head but he can’t do anything with it other than loop it well over the bar from about 10 yards out.

22nd min. Kolarov sloppily loses the ball but Boateng bails him out before it causes a problem.

23rd min. SWP, Richards, Y Toure link up. City pressured all the way into a backpass to Hart but do manage to keep the ball as the crowd whistles.

24th min. Still more City possession. Dzeko tries to push things along down the left and it’s a throw to City. But Barry loses it over the endline as he tried to keep the ball in very tight space.

25th min. Siva picked out in the middle, he finds Tevez whose pass is deflected out. Tevez and Silva got it in the box but instead of a corner an offside is given.

26th min. Boateng gets City out of a slight pickle as he was closed down by Takata going towards his own goal.

27th min. Silva is fouled 40 yards from goal but City just restart play.

28th min. Dzeko with a chance to shoot but he couldn’t get much purchase on it–it looks like he may even have resorted to toeing that one. Keeper saves the shot with ease.

29th min. City have dominated possession—SWP does well to keep that one alive on the right. Dzeko now on the left, he crosses in, it falls out to Richards but he is tackled just oustide the box, then Barry commits a foul trying to get it back from Neto.

30th min. There’s an Arist shot but K Toure blocked it before it could do any harm. It looks like SWP has taken a little knock on his head but he’ll be alright.

31st min. Takata very marginally offside.

32d min. Dzeko tries to one-touch the ball into Silva but it didn’t work. city have it , here’s Barry. On bench tonight is Nery Castillo, now an Aris player but once on loan for City in the 2007-08 season.

33rd min. Long shot from distance on the volley by Faty goes well out for a goal kick. Dzeko called for a bit of shirt-tugging.

34th min. More City possesson coming from the back. SWP moves it down the right, he did well there and it’s a corner.

35th min. Silva takes this one but’s not too dangerous. City thought they’d get another corner but instead Y Toure is called for a foul.

36th min. Miscommunication between Tevez and SWP ends another move down the right, goal kick.

37th min. K Toure has to do a little overhead kick to clear that ball, Aris have a throw on the left, and now a corner.

38th min. Neto runs over there to take it. Those are some huge flags waving in that end! Aris now win a corner on the right side.

39th min. Neto again with the take. Good ball and headed, but Hart saves. Curious moment there as Hart almost carried the ball outside his own penalty area by mistake! He went to punt it but ran into Barry, then carried it over. Free kick is indeed given. No punishment for Hart but he has tod deal with this free kick from just outside the box.

40th min. Neto takes this one but his effort is about half a yard wide. Replay shows that was not far off at all.

41st min. Silva plays that one out of bounds on the left.

42nd min. Good tackle by Kolarov to win a goal kick.

43rd min. Nice ball for Dzeoko but he can’t lay it off. Foul called against Tevez, he nicked the Aris player coming from behind.

44th min. Handball stops that Aris move. Boateng brings it forward.

45th min. Tevez tries Dzeko with a threaded through ball, good idea but it doesn’t quite come off and rolls to the keeper. Hart with an easy take on the other end as the ball comes bounding into the box.

46 th min. Boateng fouled there and he reamins on the ground. City then get a throw on the left, but that’s halftime.

Not the most exciting of entertainment, but City have showed good control here. Can they create more chances in the second half?

Pretty slim pickings in terms of first half highlights. City could do themselves a huge favor by scoring this half. Can they do it? Here’s the kickoff.

46th min. Aris have never lost in Europe at home, which is a worry. But there is a first time for everything. SWP with a dribble up the right and gets a throw.

47th min. Great ball across the field taken down well by SWP who wins a corner. Kolarov goes over to take. It takes a bounce before reaching anyone and the hosts deal with it easily. Silva now comes in and gets the ball and then a throw. City work it around right to left.

48th min. Bad ball by City sails out of boundsm unforced error.

49th min. Former MLS star Carlos Ruiz is also an Aris player. Aris have a throw down the right.

50th min. Long throw in to the box by Aris, and they get a corner shortly afterward after Kolarov’s block. Aris with a head on that one but Boateng hoofs it out.

51st min. City with the ball, Richards to SWP to Y Toure, sweeping ball to Kolarov, but no height on the cross.
Richards with a much too heavy ball in SWP’s general direction.

52nd min. City get another throw up the right side.

53rd min. More City possession, Silva now to Tevez on the left channel but Tevez is focred back and then plays a bad ball. City get it back momentarily but Aris have it now, dangerous ball in the box dealt with by K Toure.
54th min. Aris now have it, a cross into the box finds only a City head. Dzeko called for a foul trying to get onto that long ball.

55th min. Offside against Aris, replay shows that ws a good call. City come again.

56th min. Y Toure with a clever reverse diagonal long ball but SWP couldn’t reach it, and was offside anyway. City catch a break there as the ref says K Toure was fouled trying to get his head to that goal kick from Aris.

57th min. Silva to Dzeko great ball to sWP but SWP let it run instead of taking the quick shot. City keep it.

58th min. Now he has it again, but this time SWP shoots–but left footed. Comfortably saved, just not a lot of power behind that effort. City then foul Bobadilla about 25 yards from the box, Boateng brought him down.

59th min. Neto has another chance to line one up having just missed in the first half. Neto gets it on target but right at Hart.

60th min. Richards with a throw up the right. ARis have a counter, handball shout against Boateng but nothign given.
61st min. Thirty minutes to go. Difficult to predict how this will end up, neither side have looked that likely to score this half. ARis have City pinned back a bit here and end up getting a foul, against Richards, 40 yards from goal on the left.

62nd min. Neto again to take, nothing comes of that. Now Kolarov loses that battle down the left and Aris end up getting a shot from the top of the D by Tota, but Hart takes it on one bounce comfortably.

63rd min. City now attack, Tevez’s first ball in is punched but City recover, and then a great chance for Dzeko–well saved!!!

64th min. Barry found Dzeko near post and he had a quality on-target header, but credit the keeper for a terrific reflex save. City don’t get anything from the corner.

65th min. Silva fouled on the other end to stop that Aris move. Tevez tries to pick out Silva on that through ball but its cut out.

66th min. Faty crosses, it’s cleared but it fell to Neto whose blast from 25 yards is saved by a diving Hart! That was going in. Best two chance of the game in the last couple of minutes, on either end. SWP with a poor pass to end that City counter.
67th min. Another Aris shot is blocked by Barry, Michel had that effort.

68th min. City move the ball around. Dzeko to Tevez, but Tevez loses it and there’s no foul.

69th min. Goal kick on the other end after that failed counter. Hart takes a short goal kick to Toure up the right side and City now move it across midfield. Dzeko with a poor long ball trying to pick out Silva.

70th min. SWP does nicely there to anticipate that pass and intercept it. City come forward a moment later and Dzeko fires from 30 yards, and it’s just wide! He hit it right footed and the ball took a slight banana spin away from the target.
72nd min. Aris attack after a minute’s rest for an injury. That shot goes well behind from Neto. Bobadilla comes off and a tall lad named Cesarec is taking his place.

73rd min. Tevez on a run there but it’s called back–the ref says he pushed off to get around that defender. A rare offensive foul call.

74th min. Boateng heads away that long throw into the box. Faty couldn’t control that cross into the box and City will have a throw. Mancini looks set to make a sub soon.

75th min. No one has scored against Aris in Greece in UEFA play this season. Doesn’t look too likely to change at this point.

76th min. Still, it’s vital City get a goal here.

77th min. Dzeko booked there after that clash with Faty, he stopped Faty from re-starting play. Balotelli now makes his return for City after injury, SWP comes off. Balotelli will move to the top, it looks like. He’s got something new carved in his hair as well.

78th min. Shot by Michel from the left but it’s nowhere close from the 45 degree angle.

79th min. Mancini clearly wants that goal which is why Balotelli is on. Can he get a chance? And will his knees hold up?

Balotelli on the dribble there, he goes down but no foul, a whistle against Silva as he tried to recover a ball in the box. Didn’t look like much there.

80th min. Another foul, this one against Y Toure. Hasn’t been the most fluid of games. Michel open in the left channel but he’s offside.

81st min. Balotelli with a one-touch pass that is cut out. He seems to be sitting now behind the strikers with Silva moving to the wing.

82nd min. Now Mario pops up on the left, Dzeko has it, and they work it over to Richards. It’ll be a City throw. Y Toure with a shot from distance, it seemed to take a deflection but the ref gives a goal kick–looked like a bad call, that one.

83rd min. Dzeko goes down in the box but nothing doing. Tevez called for a foul. Zab comes on for Dzeko.

84th min. City may push Kolaro up now into midfield. K Toure clears that one away from the box, another much better cross comes in but it’s not cleanly met and Hart recovers the ball. It actuall went off the back of Kolarov’s head and went stright up.

85th min. Aris with a little space in midfield now and squeeze a pass through past Richards. Now they set up shop but Zab got a touch. Richards cuts this one out though. Here’s Silva and Balotelli…

86th min. Tevez had it, pass is cut out across the field but City recover. Aris try to break but they are offside.
87th min. Balotelli with an audacious bicycle kick, but it’s wide and he was called for handball anyway. Castillo is now on for Aris.

88th min. Neto is off, he had an active game and nearly scored in the first half on that curling free kick. Aris with the throw up the left but they quickly lose it–goal kick to City.

89th min. Balotelli with a dribble down the right and he’s content to win a corner. Kolarov to take down the right side. In-swinger and that wasa good one, but Richards couldn’t catch it squarely! Instead he glances it wide to the left.

90th min. City bring it forward again. Just two minutes of injury time tonight.

91st min. Silva’s cross is deflected and it’s another corner. City act like they will play it short and there’s a whistle as the ball came in–the ref will call for a re-take of the corner.

92nd min. Kolarov’s ball is too low and it’s thumped away. Barry recovers and knocks a very long ball forward but nothing doing. City get it back and come again. Boateng with a all forward, Silva gets onto it and chips it over to Richards, whose wild half volley is nowhere close.

And that’s the final whistle! Absolutely nothing decided on the night–nil-nil is your final score. City have it all to do next week in Manchester, and have no room to slip up. Aris have proven as tough as advertised on their home pitch.

Final stats show that City had 12 shots compared to 10 for Aris, but in truth none looked likely to go in, apart from Dzeko’s excellent near post header in the second half.