CITY registered their second away win of the season at Everton thanks to strikes from Robinho and Stephen Ireland to boost their hopes of European qualification.
Robinho put the Blues ahead after 35 minutes after being set up by his Brazilian team-mate Elano. Robinho then turned provider to set up Ireland for his 13th goal of the season in the 54th minute.
Dan Gosling scored a late consolation for Everton.
With Robinho finally putting in a performance away from Eastlands the Blues were rarely troubled.
It took just eight minutes for the Brazilian to open his box of tricks, with six successive stepovers bamboozling Tony Hibbert before the City forward spoiled it by going down too easily in the penalty area.
In the 25th minute Elano’s shot was blocked by Leighton Baines but only as far as Robinho, whose curling shot seemed destined for the top corner before it was batted away by Tim Howard.
And it was Baines who saved Everton again as Ireland raced through the centre to collect Felipe Caicedo’s pass, the left-back quickly getting across to cover on the edge of the area.
But the defender could do nothing to prevent City taking the lead shortly after.
Hibbert’s hopeful ball forward was headed down by Nedum Onuoha and Elano’s brilliant first-time pass sent compatriot Robinho racing down the wing and he left Phil Jagielka trailing as he fired through Howard’s legs.
Brilliant
Five minutes after the interval Given produced a brilliant close-range save to deny Fellaini.
Hibbert’s initial cross sailed over the Belgian but Pienaar collected on the left of the penalty area and rolled it back to his team-mate who flicked it up, spun and volleyed goalwards only to see his effort tipped over.
Just as Everton seemed to be gaining a foothold in the game they conceded a second courtesy of a swift 54th-minute counterattack.
When the ball was played up to Caicedo there appeared to be no danger but he laid it off to Robinho wide on the left and with the defence pulled over to one side no-one - apart from the Brazilian - spotted the on-rushing Ireland.
Robinho clipped the ball into the gaping space in front of the penalty area and Ireland calmly controlled before slotting a low shot into the corner.
The Brazilian was clearly enjoying himself by now and when Ireland returned the favour inside the area Robinho’s improvised flick forced Howard into a one-handed save.
Baines appealed for a penalty when his cross hit Richard Dunne but the defender’s arm was well behind him and he could clearly do nothing about it.
Seven minutes of injury time allowed substitute Gosling to fire home a consolation.
What is your verdict on the game? Have your say.
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Everton 1 City 2
April 25, 2009
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Hughes out zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Well Done City fantastic result and still keeps a chance of a place in Europe alive
7 MINUTES ADDED ON ! CAN EVERYONE NOW SEE WHAT MH HAS HAD TO DEAL WITH THIS SEASON AND STILL HE STANDS TALL - THIS IS THE MANAGER FOR US. BLATANT ATTEMPT AT MATCH FIXING BY THE FA WHO IN TURN ARE CONTROLLED BY THE TOP 4. BEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD? MOST CORRUPT LEAGUE IN THE WORLD!
watched game online and thought city played well and stephen ireland and robbie had good games if stevie i isnt young player of year then their something wrong 13 goal from central midfield is as good as anyone else this season
watched it online and we were terrific! Score line flattered them in the end and 7 mins stoppage time was a joke! Great performance and hopefully this will keep the hughes haters quiet for a week!
Hallejuah......hope I don't have to wait another 17yrs for a win at Goodison.
The lack of ruthlessness however after Everton went down to 10 to seal off the game was disappointing, not to mention the immaturity to see the game out. To be uncomfortable with a 2-0 lead with stoppage time to play (albeit 7 minutes!!) is not good, or maybe that's just in the DNA of being a City fan.
Given saved us with 1 great save to preserve the 1-0 lead; Onuoha - solid as usual (good to see some agro to come to defend a teammate also); Kompany awesome battle vs his Belgian mate Fellaini, fantastic game in mid and then defence; Ireland - par for the course based on performances this season; Robinho - inspired; Elano - great assist, and great workrate which cannot be overlooked; Gelsen - the headless chicken did very well for half an hour so credit where its due.
Comfortable first half and my only real complaint was that City were too slow to close down their opponents at times; something that persisted in the second half when City shut have been shutting the game down. I think City's loss of Micah was more detrimental to City that losing Jagileka was to Everton as there's no doubt Kompany's calm was missed in midfield and his replacement there was culpable for not tracking back with Everton's scorer.
The Flop gave a man of the match performance in a game that made a mockery of his and City's away form despite it being against a tired understrength Everton.
A deserved win that puts the loss to Fulham into sharp focus.
I like it. Pip..pip
why cant we do that more away from home?
Thought we were gona snatch defeat from the jaws of victory city style!
Well done Mark Hughes, well done City. Great to hear that we played with discipline and skill. Sounds like Robbie and Elano had another good game. Hughes is really starting to stamp his authority on the team. Really pleased for him. Hopefully this will encourage the owners to stick with him, something I have advocated all season. The serial foamers that inhabit this site will have to foam about other areas of their life this weekend.
Ooooooooh yes!
Well done lads!
Made my day :D
Well deserved win, couple of good goals. Can`t for the life of me see where the seven minutes of added time came from but we held our nerve at the end. Thought Gelson was doing a good job until he got on the wrong side of gosling for their goal. I also can`t work out why giggs is favourite for player of the year, Ireland has been head and shoulders above him all season. And I see the swampers are going to ruin football by bidding for Kaka, yeah we won`t be reading that headline anywhere will we. They can do us a favour though by beating spurs, practically all the other results went our way, just 1 point to make up now and with our superior goal difference we are getting very close to that elusive seventh place. Be nice if all the moaners could have a week off, well done to the manager, he has the side motivated and behind him at the moment.
Well done. Where will the "Hughes out brigade" be today: "leave them alone and they will come home wagging their tails behind them".
well well well.... typical city... this almost makes up for the Fulham debacle. 7th is still very do-able. it'd be nice to effectively do it with a win at the rags. admittedly, Everton were tired out before the half hour mark, but we made short work of them, despite Dunne's inexplicable failure to track Gosling for their goal.
in the last three games, robinho has made fools out of his critics. hard work, supreme ability and exceptional movement. elano also excelled again on the right, and ireland played very well, again he was deeper and to the left of the inside right role he's taken for most of the season. i prefer him there tbh, he cuts out all sorts of attacks down that side before they can begin, it's a more valuable role for the team, and he showed that he can still break forward and score. with ireland and elano both on the pitch we keep the ball better.
best thing was that everyone looked happy and together on the pitch today.
has something changed behind the scenes?
fantastic result just spoke to an everton friend who was at the game and said we easily deserved it , brilliant and to make it sweeter had £5 on 2-1 and robinho 1st goal at 70-1 sorted the renewal out know no worries.
Everton v Man City
Mark Lawrenson's prediction:
Everton are going extremely well. They are in the FA Cup final and the draw against Chelsea emphasised that they are a tough team to beat. Defensively they are very good and have shown how far they have come under manager David Moyes.
City, as we know, are no good on the road. Craig Bellamy will be missing and they just don't have any presence up front. They have no-one to hold the ball in attack and that means it keeps coming back at them all too often.
Verdict: 2-0
Shove that one "Lawro" LMAO!!!
First things first - about bloody time! Took four first-team changes from their side to help us out, but well done lads all the same. Also, well done Chelsea, boo to Fulham, come on Blackburn tomorrow, and (though it pains me to say it) come on the Rags this eve. We all know a Spuds win would be a disaster.
Still feel 7th is too late now and Hughes's decision to drop Robinho against Fulham will be his biggest mistake of the season (and there've been many!!). Saying that, sport is probably 70% belief, 30% ability, so maybe today's win can really make everyone believe we CAN go to the Swamp and WHL and get something from both. But the Spuds game will be a six-pointer, so we can't lose that one.
Now, two points to finish...
1. If we finish 7th, come close to finishing 7th or at least finish the season on a performance high, then (at risk of being taken outside by my fellow foamers and beaten with sticks) Hughes should be given another year. If things are finally coming good, it could be disastrous to stop the car and change driver at this stage.
2. STOP SINGING "WE'VE GOT ROBINHO", YOU MUPPETS!!!! We sound like some small hick backwater club, grateful a superstar of Robinho's talent would want to play for us! We're the richest, soon to be biggest, club in the world and it's about we started realising we're Manchester City, not Hyde United!!!
Still in shock at the AWAY win. Did it really happen???
Phew ! well done city
Well done lads! Let all the non-believers shut up. Goal difference and 52 points will be the target for 7th spot. So, it's us Spuds, the Cockneys and Fulham. Come on City!
well done city, keep up the good work! CTID
Firstly, well done city, a fine away performance at long long last. We all knew it was in the locker its just a pity it took this long to show itself.
Its a pity we couldn't keep a clean sheet though, as Fulhams goal difference is now +6 and ours +8. With away trips to The spuds and to Salford, 7th is a little too far away me thinks but lets not give up and lets get amongst them at Salford and give other teams a helping hand for once! But with just the league to concentrate on, will be a huge plus for us as we are a team that will only grow and look forward!
2 new defenders(RB and CB)a solid midfielder who can get forward as well as defend and a quality striker is what we need.
Top 4 next year???? Only if we dont qualify for Europe!
And if it comes down to the last game, we can still qualify for Europe by finishing on level points with a superior goal difference. So the lack of concentration that gave Everton their late goal is something we're gonna have to sort out quick. Had we won 2-0, we'd have been +9 to Fulham's +6. Would have given us that bit more breathing space. Hughes has to be aware of this or I just about give up on the guy.
Brillinat team spirit today, on the ball as well as off the ball. If this spirit goes on there is no holding us. Come on City. If we qualify for Europe it will cost the club several millions less to attract 1 or 2 more top notch players.
It's becoming obvious that Robinho is a BIG confidence player and now that he has rediscovered his shooting boots he is clearly running riot once again. I didn't get to watch the match but from what I heard from radio coverage, Robinho, Elano and Ireland all had good games and this is exactly what we need if we to are fight the better teams in their own territory.
Everton's form recently has bettered that of any other team in the league, with big results against the RAGS and Chelski, so for us to travel to Goodison and, from what I hear, play to our own strengths and keep them at bay, makers me very happy.
It might be just me, but I really am starting to buy into Hughes' "foundations" speak and believe that if we gave him another couple of years, him and the new management team could really drive us forward. Robinho has also delighted me in the last week with his performances on and off the pitch, and I can only hope his attitude stays that way at least until we get a few more quality players on board (note I don't necessarily wish for big-names, I would be happy with 7 or 8 more Zabaleta's and Kompany's as long as they improve the squad).
Not long until the end of the season now, keep this form going and we could definitely crash the party for 7th, especially with West Ham losing today and Tottenham to play the RAGS later on (Though I wouldn't be too upset if they stole points, LUFC FOR THE TITLE!!)
Woohoo Well predicted Edski....you are a true blue hero!