Manchester City edge past Aston Villa 3-2 to pick up full points from a thrilling home game. Sergio Aguero scored the opening goal in the 3rd minute. Left-back, Aleksandar Kolarov increased the lead in the 65th minute from a brilliant free-kick. Tom Cleverley then pulled one back for the visitors in 68th minute from a brilliant long range shot. Just when things were looking good in favour of the Cityzens, Carlos Sanchez equalized with a half volley from a corner. At the stroke of 90 minutes, Aleksandar Kolarova s corner found an opportunistic Fernandinho inside the box who chest trapped the ball brilliantly and netted the winner with an eye-catching volley.
Sergio Agueroa s early goal was due to a childish error committed by Aston Villa custodian Brad Guzan. The USA international received a back pass from Ron Vlaar and in return he passed it towards a forthcoming Sergio Aguero who just had to tap in the ball inside the net.
The second goal was scored by Aleksandar Kolarov whose well-crafted low free-kick curled inside the net beautifully beyond the reach of Brad Guzan. As the match was slowly going in Citya s favour, former Manchester United man, Tom Cleverley scored a beautiful goal. The visiting side won a free-kick which was unconvincingly cleared by the Manchester City defenders. Cleverley lashed out a shot which went inside.
With the game progressing towards the ending moments, The Villa scored an equalizing goal which came from the foot of Carlos Sanchez. Sanchez scored a spectacular half-volley from a corner. Unfortunately, their happiness was short-lived as Fernandinho netted the winning goal from Aleksandar Kolarova s corner in the 89th minute to seal the fate of the game.
A few controversial decisions went against the away team. The most prominent one was the offside call against Christian Benteke in the dying moments when the game was tied at 2-2. The Belgian international found himself in a one on one position with Joe Hart but was called offside by the linesman. The television replay although suggested that it was a poor decision. This proved to be deadly blunder from the official as the goal could have changed the colour of the match.
After the match, Manchester City manager, Manuel Pellegrini opined: a I dona t think it was fortunate. We didna t play well today and Aston Villa played very well especially with possession of the ball but they didna t have many chances to score except from the two set pieces from which they tied the game.
a So I dona t know why it is fortunate that we scored a third goal from a set piece in the same way that they scored their two goals.
a But in reviewing the game I think that it was one of our worst games in terms of possession. We have so much possession against every team that today was strange to see how many important passes we lost.a
He denied to the conclusion that his side was lucky today but confessed that it was a bad day at the office for his men.
About the controversial offside decision which went against Christian Benteke, the Chilean manager said, a Aston Villa played very well today, but maybe their first goal was offside, maybe we should also have had a clear penalty and there a lot of things in a game that can happen in a different way than the referee decided.”