Manchester City weren't much better on Saturday than they were in last week's loss to Cardiff, but Hull City couldn't do anything in front of the Citizens' goal. A couple of excellent finishes did the job for the hosts, who won 2-0 despite their lackluster play.
Manchester City vs. Hull City: Final score 2-0, Negredo fires Citizens to victory
Manchester City turned in another lackluster performance on Saturday, but Hull didn’t have the cutting edge that Cardiff had last week.
Manuel Pellegrini still has plenty of tweaking to do before his side come up against the elite of Europe and the Premier League, but he’ll be happy to see them squeak out three points from a less than spectacular performance.
The first half featured very few good chances for either side. Hull actually had the better of the scoring opportunities in the first 20 minutes of the game, with Sone Aluko missing just wide to the left of Joe Hart in the 7th minute and Robert Koren missing in a very similar spot eight minutes later. City controlled possession in the latter part of the half, but were kept at bay by some excellent play by the Hull midfield.
Alvaro Negredo replaced Edin Dzeko up top, and that substitution proved to be the difference for City. In the 65th minute, Pablo Zabaleta found Negredo with a cross to the back post that found the Spaniard in a great position. He split two Hull defenders, rose up to meet the ball and headed past Allan McGregor to put his side ahead.
In stoppage time, Yaya Toure sealed the win for Man City with a brilliant free kick from 20 yards out. He curled the ball over the wall, but with an incredible amount of pace and managed to beat both McGregor and a Hull defender on the line.
Manchester City: Hart, Zabaleta, Lescott, Nastasic, Kolarov, Toure, Fernandinho, Silva (Nasri 66’), Aguero (Milner 76’), Navas, Dzeko (Negredo 45’)
Goals: Negredo (65’), Toure (90’)
Hull City: McGregor, Figueroa, Chester, Davies, Elmohamady, Brady, Huddlestone, Livermore, Koren (Boyd 75’), Aluko (Quinn 70’), Graham
Goals: None
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