Premier League - Hull comeback halts Man City

Eurosport - Mon, 17 Nov 09:04:00 2008

Two Stephen Ireland goals were not enough to earn Manchester City a win at Hull City as the sides drew 2-2 in the Premier League.

2008-2009 Hull-Manchester City Geovanni scores a free-kick - 0

Geovanni earned the home side a share of the spoils with a deflected second-half free-kick after Ireland's heroics had put City in control.

Daniel Cousin gave Hull the lead at the KC Stadium following a dreadful Tal Ben Haim error, before an equally serious blunder from Kamil Zayette allowed Ireland to equalise, and the midfielder put City in front with a peach of a strike just before half-time .

Between them, the two sides had picked up none of the previous 18 Premier League points available, and both managers will probably be satisfied with a draw just to stop their recent rot.

The teams' poor form had put them under pressure, and that told twice in the first half as those terrible defensive mistakes led to the first two goals.

City centre-back Ben Haim underhit his backpass to Joe Hart woefully on 12 minutes, allowing Cousin to sneak in and prod the ball into the net.

To compound City's misery, Hart was injured in attempting to save the shot and had to be replaced by Kasper Schmeichel after damaging ankle ligaments.

The 21-year-old will almost certainly miss England's friendly international against Germany on Wednesday, the latest among a clutch of players to pull out of Fabio Capello's squad.

With Richard Dunne suspended and Dietmar Hamann on the bench, City's captain's armband passed to record signing Robinho.

It was a curious decision by Mark Hughes, considering the Brazilian's limited acquaintance with the English language, and he did little to gee up his troops in the injury-enforced break following the opening goal.

The visitors struggled to assert themselves following a sequence of one win from seven Premier League games, but were handed a lifeline eight minutes before half-time.

Zayette intercepted a poor Robinho pass but, under no pressure, took a catastrophically heavy touch and let in Ireland, who slotted into the empty net with his left foot.

If Ireland's first goal was lucky, his second was a beauty. He collected a low lateral pass from the left from Javier Garrido and, unmarked, bent a superb shot inside the far corner from the edge of the box to send City into half-time in front.

Geovanni fired over from 35 yards with an ambitious free-kick early in the second half, but had more success when a second set-piece was awarded 25 yards out for a soft foul on Marlon King by Micah Richards.

The Brazilian's effort deflected off Vincent Kompany in the wall, wrong-footing Schmeichel and looping into the right side of the Manchester City net.

Hull looked the more likely to snatch victory, not least from a thrice-taken Geovanni free-kick.

Twice the Brazilian's effort was blocked, but referee Phil Dowd adjudged that the wall broke early and booked Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ireland.

At the third attempt the shot was deflected for a corner, with Dowd ignoring Darius Vassell who once again advanced too soon to charge the ball down.

Vassell had City's best chance in the final minute of the 90, but saw a close-range volley blocked superbly by Boaz Myhill.

Alex Chick / Eurosport

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  1. Let' s chat on """""" W ealthyFINDER Co m """""""

    Appreciate all kinds of topics

    hahahhahahahahhahah

    From sexyhaaaa, on Sun 16 Nov 10:33PM

  2. Well done Hull!

    From Eve, on Sun 16 Nov 9:30PM

  3. To Sir Johnnyboy Williamson esq.....Aka Sad Sack,

    You're the living embodiment of why Man utd are such a despised and barely tolerated piece of poo.Now off to bed sonny,mummy creamcheese is calling!

    From paul, on Sun 16 Nov 9:19PM

  4. I think City were a bit lucky, the defensive mistakes were bad by Zayatte, but City came out stronger in the 2nd half and we gained a point and after 3 losses I'm delighted that we got the point. If someone had said 21 points after 13 games at the beginning of the season I would have been very happy with that. And Sparky, would you like some cheese with that whine!!!!

    From Adam, on Sun 16 Nov 9:01PM

  5. says it all when man city are employing ex reds to take you up i hate man city and every other team in the prem man city should stick to what they are good at getting relegated haha and as for all you chelsea fans your cr@p and not even worried bout you scousers just a lucky start haha

    From jonathanwilliamson, on Sun 16 Nov 8:37PM

  6. omegaexecutive if they are as u say @?@*, why have they not had a good team to play against?? may be if you guys stop selling and using guns and drugs, and cut down on knife crimes, and have a little respect for your town like we have,you guys may improve. just like we have..

    From david s, on Sun 16 Nov 8:26PM

  7. doesnt matter what any other team in the prem do only one team can say they have dominated the league since it was formed year in year out to all man city fans you can buy players but you cant buy heritage

    From jonathanwilliamson, on Sun 16 Nov 8:20PM

  8. Face it City, you are @#$%, always have been, always will be........

    DEAL WITH IT !!!!!!!!!!!

    MAN UTD FAN 4EVER

    PEEKAY

    From omegaexecutive@..., on Sun 16 Nov 8:12PM

  9. @ john- Corluka never played left back for City, Croatia or Spurs.
    @ Cathy a Manx is a person from the Isle of Man

    MH isn't the quality of manager that is going to take City forward. How can you have sooo much talent in the squad (first time since lee/summerbee/young/booth/bell) and play soo poorly?

    From Andy, on Sun 16 Nov 8:12PM

  10. sparky hull are holding there own, against all the @#$% in the league, one man does not a team make, and if did well pity your man city has none, haha you have shown ur colours manx scum..

    From david s, on Sun 16 Nov 8:10PM

  11. HAS SPARY GOT BIT OF A POINT????

    From neilallsop@..., on Sun 16 Nov 7:49PM

  12. There's some rubbish comments on this site,people who know very little about football and make silly rude remarks,get a life some of you.

    From ARTHUR R, on Sun 16 Nov 7:46PM

  13. go hull sparky put a sock in it freak

    From NEIL, on Sun 16 Nov 7:39PM

  14. Sparky....you @#$%, two questions.Have you ever been to hull? and secondly if your such a fan,why were you not at game? your an armchair supporter.

    From babylontalking, on Sun 16 Nov 7:35PM

  15. Spary... you talk S*** and probbably out of yoru a*** too go get a life LOSER

    From gavin, on Sun 16 Nov 7:11PM

  16. a manx saying hulls full of smackheads- manchester full of chavs smackheads and bad losers get a life man city running out of excuses

    From cathycunningham@..., on Sun 16 Nov 6:55PM

  17. Out with sparky and in with mouriniho.............

    From karljones677@..., on Sun 16 Nov 6:55PM

  18. Why the hell can teams who have been in this league for years not get rid of these east yorkshire clowns? The city is a slum thats full of smackheads and derelict buildings and a one man band team. Take giovanni out of this side and they would be nothing! go back to the fizzy pop league where you belong!

    From samantha, on Sun 16 Nov 6:48PM

  19. our city defence is a shambles up front were ok were the 2nd highest scoring club in the premieship, richards is having a shocking season, we sold corluka who in my eyes was one of the best left back's in the league replaced him with tat it seriously needs sorting before we get to far behind,as for the game it was a really good game the score was fair, fair play to hull this season they have done the business with limited cash where as we have done @#$% with all the money we could ask for, all i can say is bring on january and sort our shocking defence out

    From johnpercival80, on Sun 16 Nov 6:48PM

  20. once again pi~* poor refin by tossers INC.

    From STEVEN, on Sun 16 Nov 6:44PM
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