Santa Cruz spoils City record

Roque Santa Cruz's purple patch continued as Blackburn wrecked Man City's perfect home record with a 2-2 draw.

Rovers striker equalises twice as City's 100 per cent record bites the dust

Roque Santa Cruz's purple patch continued as Blackburn Rovers wrecked Manchester City's perfect home record with a 2-2 draw. City had won their previous nine Premier League matches at home this season and twice took the lead against their North West rivals. The outstanding Martin Petrov was the architect for both City's goals, clipping in a precise cross for Darius Vassell to head the hosts in front on 27 minutes. But Rovers responded immediately as Santa Cruz darted in at the near post to head David Bentley's free-kick beyond Joe Hart. Yet two minutes later City were back in front when a barnstorming run from Petrov resulted in Ryan Nelsen turning the Bulgarian winger's cross into his own goal. With just six minutes to go, Rovers levelled again when Santa Cruz nodded in Bentley's cross for his seventh goal in four appearances. The equaliser momentarily appeared to be ruled out when the linesman flagged David Dunn for offside, but referee Howard Webb allowed the goal to stand.

Exposed

With Elano demoted to the bench, Petrov seemed to feel a return to top form was overdue and, in Rovers full-back Zurab Khizanishvili, the Bulgarian had just the opponent required. The Georgian's lack of pace was ruthlessly exposed and he was left to look distinctly second class as Petrov zoomed past him at regular intervals. Three times the winger reached the by-line at top speed having outsmarted the Blackburn defence. That City only scored twice was more to do with an atrocious miss by Rolando Bianchi than anything Petrov did wrong. The £8.8million striker must have been wishing the ground would open up and swallow him after Petrov had galloped onto Stephen Ireland's return pass, then rolled across along the face of the Blackburn goal which left an unmarked Bianchi with a two-yard tap-in. Inexplicably, he missed. Thankfully, Vassell was not so profligate shortly afterwards when he rose to power home a far-post header after Petrov, leaving Khizanishvili gasping in his slipstream, delivered the perfect cross. It was the trigger for a goal explosion as, within a four-minute spell, Blackburn levelled before City went in front again. Santa Cruz netted his 12th goal of an excellent campaign to level matters for Rovers, flicking Bentley's curling free-kick beyond Hart, yet Mark Hughes' men barely had time to catch their breath before they were behind again. Petrov was the architect once more, producing a carbon-copy cross to the one Bianchi had wasted earlier. Again, the Italian was hunting a goal but on this occasion Nelsen saved him the bother sliding the ball into his own net from four yards.

Out of his misery

The least surprising event of the night was that Khizanishvili failed to re-appear for the second half, put out of his misery by Hughes who presumably could only see major problems if the defender remained on the field. Hughes' move worked to the extent Petrov's space was closed down by Brett Emerton, although the arrival of Benni McCarthy did little to lift an out-of-sorts visiting attack, Santa Cruz excepted. The introduction of Elano just after the hour mark threatened more, especially when the Brazilian neatly controlled Christopher Samba's poor clearance on his chest and then sent a dipping volley inches wide. With Blackburn's threat withering, there appeared only one outcome. It still appeared the case even when Santa Cruz nodded home Bentley's late corner. But, after discussion between Webb and his brave assistant, Blackburn had their point and City's proud home record had gone.

Manchester City	Team Statistics	Blackburn Rovers
2	Goals	2
2	1st Half Goals	1
1	Shots on Target	5
4	Shots off Target	4
2	Blocked Shots	2
3	Corners	3
11	Fouls	17
5	Offsides	5
1	Yellow Cards	1
0	Red Cards	0
71.5	Passing Success	77.2
30	Tackles	23
66.7	Tackles Success	78.3
53.8	Possession	46.2
48.1	Territorial Advantage	51.9