The final insult for Balotelli comes in the statistic that only really matters for a player like him – shots on target. His success rate of 40%, just two on target from his five efforts during the game including one woeful effort from the halfway line, was dwarfed by Williams’s 100% return. That statistic alone is probably one that summed up the woes of Balotelli on his first trip to Wales; he was out run, out battled and out performed by a player who, from that very first challenge where he beat Balotelli to the ball whilst putting it out for a throw, demonstrated a far greater hunger and desire to deliver victory for his team.
In all aspects of the game, Balotelli was completely dominated by Williams, and when Balotelli sought refuge elsewhere, the dominance was continued by Williams’ young defensive partner, Steven Caulker, who similar to Williams won all his aerial duels, all his tackles and even bettered Williams’ percentage rate of passes, finishing the game with a completion rate of 86.59%.
Thanks to Luke Moore’s 83rd minute header, who in just 11 minutes matched Balotelli’s two shots on target, Swansea ran out well deserved winners, actually completing more accurate passes (490) than Manchester City even attempted (481) and also managed to get more crosses in than their illustrious opponents, 24 against 23. That fact alone illustrates perhaps how far Swansea have come since their bow in this division last August, when during a painful 4 – 0 defeat by Mancini’s team, they only managed 14 crosses in a game in which they completely dominated the possession, if not the score-line.
But despite Moore’s powerful header from Wayne Routledge’s excellent cross, it was the battle between the Welsh International and his Italian opponent that intrigued me most and was no doubt extremely significant in the final outcome of the contest. And that battle was won hands down by the Welshman.
They may play in different positions, they may be from different backgrounds and they probably live completely different lives, but if I was a manager handed £18.5m to buy a player to strengthen my squad, and Williams and Balotelli were the options, then I know 100% which of the two I would invest my money in. And it wouldn’t be Super-Mario.
All of the stats from this article have been taken from the Opta Stats Centre at EPLIndex.com – Subscribe Now (Includes a author privileges!) See Demo’s and videos about the Stats Centre & read about new additions to the stats centre.
