Manchester City vs Inter Milan - Post-Game reaction

Hello, hope everyone has had a good weekend. After today's win over Inter Milan, Manchester City have come out on top on the Dublin Super Cup.

If you have not heard the news, City won today 3-0 over Inter Milan who finished an exact result last year against City in the same event. 

I somehow woke up early enough to catch the game however I did miss the first 5 minutes and hence have no notes before the 6:30 mark. 

I am going to put up a transcript like recording of the game in which I was taking notes and watching the game at the same time. 

You will notice a heavy focus on the offense and I will explain everything afterwards. 

Game started off at 10:30 Central time. 

6:50 - Hart makes a mistake while passing. Cleaned up afterwards

7:40 - Mario takes a precise shot at the keeper however it is saved. Good power and form.

8:00 - The defense has been suffocating any offensive attempt through the middle.

11:20 - Mario receives a chance to put it in the net, however Julio Cesar denies him, the ball however flies past Yaya Toure and he fails to strike a second time right in front of the net. 

13:40 - The defense is being anchored by NDJ and he is doing a superb job stopping any attacks coming from the middle.

14:20 - Richard Micah shows his physicality by using his body to stop Italian progress on the wings.

17:30 - Edin Dzeko receives the ball from Kolarov and puts it in the net. The side official calls it offside but it was clearly a wrong call. The defender was right in front of Dzeko. Here is the link to the play.

18:30 - Kompany comes in clutch and disrupts a build up.

19:00 - Milner puts out nice passes to his teammates. 

19:20 - Joe Hart makes a comfortable save.

20:00 - The midfield is showing good, crisp passes as well as the back line. 

21:31 - Lescott uses his body in a one on one situation right in front of the goal which ends the offensive play for Inter Milan.

22:50 - Silva makes a pointless lob, so far he has done very little to stand out.

23:00 - Silva utilizes his speed to break up a play on defense. 

24:50 - Inter are prepping a substitution.

25:20 - Nigel De Jong shows his composure and his tackling skills by making a text book tackle.

25:30 - Substitution for Inter.

26:40 - Wasted service from Silva.

27:00 - A counter mounted by Inter is wasted with Sneijders shot being deflected. 

28:40 - Kompany does a nice job 2-1 keeping the ball alive, in play and in keeping it in City possession.

29:20 - Lescott is fouled for shoving.

29:54 - Dzeko is out muscled on the other side of the field.

30:22 - NDJ makes another excellent tackle which creates a play of Dzeko to Milner and Milner to Balo with Balo taking a cracking shot that was saved. Good play.

31:30 - Silva passes to Dzeko who was on the inside corner of the box, Dzeko fancies his chances and keeper deflects it for a corner.

32:00 - Lescott receives a foul off the corner.

32:30 - Sneijder takes a shot at Hart. Keeper doesn't have problems with it. 

33:35 - I notice Dzeko is moving with more energy.

34:58 - Micah wins City a corner thanks to his physical style.

35:57 - Micah heads the ball with an extremely loud grunt, good effort, good grunt, good play. 

36:16 - Micah gives a strong tackle on the defensive side of the ball.

36:50 - Kompany makes a good standing tackle.

37:17 - Sneijder makes a good build up play to Muntari. 

38:13 - Silva bounces the ball out. 

39:13 - Silva passes the ball behind Dzeko on a break, the ball is kicked out on first touch by Dzeko.

39:50 - Balo wastes a good build up with him and Dzeko breaking the line, passes outside of the box where the play ends. 

40:15 - Dzeko dribbles the ball past Stankovic, wins a corner. 

42:40 - Kompany lobs a ball out of bounds.

43:46 - Sneijder tells the ref that he thinks he has a pimple on his thigh. Points it out. Ref confirms.

44:35 - Dzeko wastes an opportunity to strike. 

45:00+ - Balo scores a goal with his head from a corner. Great header. 

End of the fist half.

At this point in the game I was disappointed again with how Silva had been playing. It seems he is most comfortable with Mario at this point. I was impressed with how stout our defense is.

Nigel De Jong was a big reason as to why all the attacks by Inter had been stalling. His tackles were crisp, clean and he dominated the center. 

Kompany was doing a clutch job and Micah Richards stood out just as much as Nigel. His physical style of play is a great asset to this team.

Yaya Toure was a bit disappointing, he did not stand out too much however he did not make mistakes either. He did not receive the ball much at his feet for some reason. The offense was fast paced and the defense on the same tempo, when I wrote down in my notes for the offensive play, the defense had already taken it away from Inter and brought it back up field. 

Lescott made some nice plays but he also had a couple of fouls. 

Kolarov had improved his lobs and was putting them in the right place most of the time. 

Dzeko should have gotten a goal however the refs made a mistake and called it offsides. 

Balo had a good header and seemed full of energy. No fooling around this half and he also looked to pass to others around him in tough situations.

Hart was having a slow day but made some comfortable saves and wasn't tested much thanks to the dominant defense. 

Milner shows great chemistry with everyone around him, including Dzeko.

Second half begins.

45:40 - 40 seconds into the second half and Dzeko manages to pass the ball to Silva who was in front of him, he proceeds to pass Silva and David puts a beauty of a pass in front of Dzeko and Edin puts it in the bottom left corner of the net. Great play by both Silva and Dzeko. Here is the link.

48:00 - Dzeko and Milner connecting nicely offensively.

51:40 - Kompany has great concentration when an offensive player tries to make a fancy move to get by him. Kompany was having none of that and broke up the play. Clutch.

53:49 - Another crisp tackle by Nigel De Jong.

54:09 - Free kick deflection for Inter has Hart scrambling, Joe makes a fantastic save. Critical reaction time. 

55:56 - Sneijder draws a free kick off of Kompany.

57:09 - Stankovic misses a great strike on City goal. 

58:30 - Inter begins to build up. Great effort by the defense in not making mistakes.

60:00 - Midfield shows some good, clean passing. 

61:10 - Dzeko makes a good ball recovery. 

63:50 - Clean tackle by Kolarov. 

66:03 - Poor first touch by Dzeko to clear the ball out of City area.

67:40 - Milner tries a nice low cross with Dzeko waiting on the other end to tap it in however Julio makes a save.

68:35 - Lescott clears the ball poorly and could have been a big mistake. Thankfully it rolls out of bounds. 

70:11 - Silva passes to Balo and Balo passes it back to Silva however the pass is interrupted. 

71:55 - Yaya tries an over head pass but fails to find his man.

73:28 - Mautari strikes the ball just wide of goal.

75:26 - Shaun Wright Phillips comes on for Balo, I notice he is a tiny human being.

76:02 - Kompany makes a bad pass which is cleaned up by NDJ.

76:48 - Kolarov makes another clean tackle which ends up being a corner. 

78:30 - Good pass by Dzeko to SWP. 

78:35 - Adam Johnson comes on for Milner and Gareth Barry comes on for Silva. 

80:55 - Dzeko passes to SWP, who shoots on first touch, too high.

82:02 - Kompany fouls Pazzini. No card.

82:40 - Pazzini heads the ball at close range however Hart manages another fantastic save.

84:06 - Eto'o on Lescott, Lescott does well to hold his own.

86:45 - Kolarov comes off for Rekik.

86:50 - Micah makes another tackle, very physical but clean.

87:45 - Suarez comes on for Yaya Toure. 

90:00+ - 3 minutes extra time.

91:19 - Dzeko makes a nice move to get behind the line however the ball gets away from him and ends up in the keepers hands.

92:45 - Great play overall and possibly the play of the game. Shaun Wright Phillips receives the ball from Gareth Barry, on the edge of the box, he seems to lose control for a second, the ball dissapears from view, then reappears with the ball in control, he creates a low cross which connects with Adam Johnson and the ball rolls into the back of the net. 

93:00 - Second half comes to a finish and Manchester City have won 3-0.

Post game thoughts: City played incredibly well and Silva was better the second half of the game rather then the first. 

Dzeko looked very lively out there, chasing people down and making extra effort. 

Adam Johnson did well to score and Shaun Wright Phillips looks like he has earned a spot on the roster. 

Milner did well all game and Gareth Barry had a couple of good deep balls. 

Kolarov looked solid along with Lescott who made a couple more mistakes.

Nigel, Kompany and Hart are the defensive stars of the game. 

Over all every single player looked good today. Yaya did not do much however he didn't make mistakes either.

The only area where City seemed lacking was the air competition. The passes looked cleaner and neater then against Galaxy and so did the service.

I am extremely satisfied with todays result and hope that SWP earns a spot with the squad. He definitely deserves one.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!