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Alvaro Negredo of Manchester City celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester City and Hull City at the Etihad Stadium on August 31, 2013 in Manchester, England.
In the early kick-off, Manchester City, surviving a scare, defeated Hull City 2-0 at the Ethiad Stadium, courtesy of two second half goals from the new signing Alvaro Negredo and Yaya Toure. Hull City really did give The Blues a run for their money but were unable to keep the same intensity in their second half, eventually going down.
Manuel Pellegrini made a couple of changes to his side that went down 2-3 to Cardiff City, to everyone’s surprise, last weekend, with Matija Nastasic and Aleksandar Kolarov replacing Javi Garcia and Gael Clichy respectively.
The citizens were rocked early in the match, with Hull City coming close to scoring twice within the first 10 minutes but unable to close down both the opportunities. Firstly, Robert Koren getting to the ball ahead of Joe Hart in the box, failed to find Danny Graham and then Sonu Aloko, beating the Manchester City goal-keeper one-on-one scuffed his shot wide.
The home team had their moments soon after, one on either side of the disallowed Tigers’ goal, as Danny Graham was caught off side after slotting in a delightful cross from Robert Brady, but the Hull City goal-keeper Allan McGregor was upto the challenge on both the occasions, denying Eden Dzeko and Yaya Toure.
The game slowed down considerably after the frenetic first fifteen minutes as the first half came to an end with both the teams unable to break the deadlock.
Dzeko was soon taken off with the Spanish striker Alvaro Negredo replacing him. The 28-year-old made an immediate impact heading in Pablo Zabaleta‘s cross from the right flank, in the 61st minute of the game. City’s performance also vastly improved as compared to the first half. Yaya Toure sealed the game in the dying minutes, by scoring off a free-kick, helping his team survive a Hull City scare.
