Dream Training : The Champions

During the break, George praised the appearance of the Southampton players. Against Manchester City, they did not lose focus and maintained their tactics with discipline. Even so, he also reminded Southampton to careful in the second half. Because it must be admitted, Southampton's current advantage was really too easy to be destroyed.

Southampton's luck in the first half was quite good because Manchester City wasted many chances. In the second half, Mancini will definitely make adjustments. Because of that, at the beginning of the second half, Southampton must not lose focus. Furthermore, George set the first 10 minutes in the second half as crucial minutes.

After a short break, the players returned to the field. George didn't make a substitution, but Mancini did. The Italian coach entered Belloti and pulled out Dzeko. Belloti was a talented player from Italy, at the Euro Cup last month, Belloti became one of the players who contributed to bringing Italy to the final, despite losing to Spain.

It's just that Belloti had a childish and unruly attitude, this makes a lot of Belloti's potential wasted. Belloti's condition was unpredictable, when he was in good form, he could score a hat trick. But in bad form, Belloti could get a red card at any time. Entering Belloti was a gamble for Mancini.

The second half whistle sounded. Manchester City started the second-half half kick-off. Under the gaze of tens thousands Southampton fans, the first round of the 2012/2013 season's second half had officially started. Manchester City played aggressively at the start of the second half. They seemed in a hurry to equalize the score.

As George said, Southampton calmly built up the defense. In facing the aggressiveness of Manchester City, Southampton defenders did their job well.

In the stands, the Southampton fans continued cheering on their proud team even though Southampton was currently under constant attack by Manchester City.

"Let's counterattack! Resist the new rich clubs and strike back!"

"Good job Captain! Just tackle the Spaniard."

"Nice catch Smith! I'll give you a discount at my shop if you play well today."

Various people encouraged the Southampton players to continue good performance on Southampton's defense. In the 49th minute, Southampton launched a counterattack. Hilton kicked the ball forward powerfully. Rustan immediately chased after him, he raced with Kolarov to reach the ball. Rustan ran early, so he had the advantage over Kolarov, but the Manchester City left-back held onto Rustan's shirt so tightly that the Southampton man struggled to show his best pace.

Rustan passed the ball to the middle, if he continued to carry the ball then Kolarov might steal the ball from him, so Rustan was forced to pass the ball. Ryan received the ball and dribbled it forward. Kompany used his body to push Ryan aside, but Ryan still managed to send a through ball towards Kazuki.

The pass was too weak, so Lescott cut the pass. The Manchester City center-back then gave the ball to goalkeeper Joe Hart. Manchester City escaped Southampton's counterattack. Nice try from Southampton. Despite failing to score a goal, a counterattack like this could make Manchester City more careful in attacking so that The Cityzen's attack was not as aggressive as before.

***

Belotti walked leisurely in the Southampton defense. At this moment, he was in a good mood. Mancini said he would trust Belotti more after he proved his quality at Euro 2012. To repay Mancini's trust, Belotti wanted to score goals. Without hesitation, he approached David Silva and said, "Give me the ball, I will score."

David Silva glanced at Belotti, this teammate is very difficult to predict, Silva does not know whether Belotti was currently reliable or not, but if Mancini includes him then it means the coach trusted him and Silva also decided to trust Bellotti at this time.

He replied, "When the opportunity comes I will pass you the ball, make sure to score the goal."

Bellotti nodded, thanked Silva, then ran back to his position. After Southampton's counterattack failed, Manchester City returned to build attacks from behind. Southampton tried to apply pressure so that Manchester City was not too free in building attacks. However, the skills possessed by The Cityzen's midfielders were so good that they were very easy to cope with the pressure that Southampton puts on them.

In the 54th minute, Yaya Toure snatched the ball from Simone, then he gave the ball to Silva. Rudolf tried to steal the ball, but Silva quickly grabbed the ball with his right foot, then he twisted his body while defending the ball. His eyes glanced briefly at Bellotti's position. At the right moment, Silva kicked the ball forward. The ball flew to Bellotti, who was ready to run.

The Italian player received the ball with his chest and dribbled the ball into the penalty box. Okhalo tried to block Bellotti, but he twisted his body and passed Okhalo. Aguero suddenly dashed forward, provoking Hilton's movement. Bellotti chose to continue his dribbling and used Aguero to lure Hilton forward. After that, he kicked the ball firmly into the far right of the goalpost. Dean Smith jumped trying to reach the ball but failed.

Bellotti managed to score and equalize the score to 1-1. The Manchester City players surrounded Bellotti and congratulated him. They didn't expect Bellotti to score so quickly. They realized that Bellotti was in a good performance.

In the stands, one of the middle-aged men supporting Southampton shook his head as Manchester City scored. His 13-year-old son, looked at his father and asked, "Dad, will Southampton lose?"

"If it was last season, I would believe Southampton will lose. But this season, Southampton was different. We have good players. We always have a chance to beat Manchester City," said the man. That thought was honest. Since Kazuki's appearance, Southampton had fallen behind several times, but they have kept on coming back, even in some matches, they managed to turn things around to the extreme and won the match.

This has made Southampton fans more accustomed to seeing other teams equalize or take the lead. Before the game ends, they always support Southampton knowing that this team will keep fighting until the whistle blows. The confidence of the Southampton fans grew even deeper.

After the first goal earlier, Southampton restarted the kick-off. They continued the game quietly. Manchester City put slight pressure on Southampton. Southampton could still handle this pressure well.. Ryan, who played as a playmaker, began to try to find the right opportunities for Southampton to attack.