By Chris Wright
Given that he really shouldn’t have been on the pitch by that time, Tottenham had every right to feel absolutely bloody eviscerated at the final whistle seeing as Mario Balotelli both won and then subsequently rolled home a 95th-minute penalty to nab all three points for Man City with the final touch of the game at the Etihad.
After a ponderous first-half, the game sparked into life after the interval – with four goals in nine minutes finding the back of the net courtesy of Samir Nasri (adding a sweet first-time finish to David Silva’s cute through-ball), Joleon Lescott (bundling home with his perineum), Jermain Defoe (capitalising on Stefan Savic’s wayward header to roll past Joe Hart and into an empty net) and Gareth Bale – who did this to equalise at 2-2…
Beauty.
Come the 65th minute, cometh the man. Mario Balotelli emerged from the bench – replacing the really quite useless Edin Dzeko – and found time to get booked for brushing Benoit Assou-Ekotto aside, not get booked for kicking seven shades of Tibetan Fox out of Scott Parker’s face, get bought down in the area deep into stoppage time (Ledley King’s only mistake in 90+ minutes) and then steer the resultant penalty past Brad Freidel all without so much as breaking into a jog.
In short, t’was a spiffing football match. For everyone of a non-Tottenham persuasion.
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Highlights…
Photos: PA