The
first half was a rather drab affair until a late flurry from Swansea,
with Michu going close on a couple of occasions, but the scores were
level at the break.
And a much more potent start to the second half saw City make the
breakthrough with 60 minutes on the clock after Carlos Tevez found the
net from distance.
The first quarter of the match was somewhat of a non-event, but a deep
free-kick delivered by Jonathan De Guzman at the 15-minute mark had Joe
Hart scrambling, but luckily for the England international the ball went
harmlessly out of play.
A Tevez shot five minutes before half-time sparked some life into the
match, and Michael Laudrup's side immediately sprang a marvellous
counter-attack that ended with Vincent Kompany booting the ball clear
ahead of the lurking Michu, after good work down the right from Pablo
Hernandez.
A matter of seconds later Leon Britton threaded an inch-perfect through
ball between several defenders for Michu, and after getting clear of the
City back line the Spaniard looked destined to score, but Hart rushed
out and blocked his shot, ensuring the half-time score was 0-0.
City began the second half with purpose as Aguero spun away from De
Guzman and then curled an effort towards the top far corner, but it
whistled just wide as the match started to liven up.
A couple of minutes later, half-time substitute Mario Balotelli almost
got on the end of Samir Nasri???s cross, but Ashley Williams put it
behind, while the Italian was soon involved again as it appeared he was
brought down in the area by Williams only for the referee to wave play
on.
However, the reward for City's good start to the second-half came on the
hour mark as Gael Clichy burst in towards the centre before laying the
ball off to Tevez, who fired into the bottom corner from some 30 yards.
Despite being behind, Swansea were not giving up and could have won a
penalty with 20 minutes to go as a Michu header appeared to hit Kompany
on the arm, while a long-range De Guzman strike narrowly missed the top
corner four minutes later.
Twelve minutes of stoppage time were added due to rather nasty looking
injuries to Swansea goalkeeper Michael Vorm (groin) and Micah Richards
(knee), but despite plenty of possession in that time, Swansea were
unable to conjure a leveller.
City held on to the three points to go second - at least until Manchester United's match at Chelsea on Sunday.
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