Ipswich vs Swansea
Portman Road
20:00 GT
Referee: Mohamed Benouza
The first game of the season for the newly appointed Swansea-manager. This game should be a great way to kick off a promising career, and the Swans showed some very promising signs as the players finished their 3rd game in the pre-season.
Swansea lined up in an very attacking 4-2-3-1 formation, but unfortunatly their play suffered from what seemed like poor management pre-game. They had been told to play with a much more direct way of passing then they were used to, but despite their ability to lose the ball in unfortunate situations, the posessionstats were only 51%-49% in Ipswichs favour.
Ipswich got off to a lucky start, when Jay Emmanuel-Thomas managed to pull off a sensational header against the play after only 4 minutes. A very encouraging sign for the hometeam, but Swansea showed that they were a class above for the next 15 minutes. A penalty that was never given and a shot that hit the crossbar was the closest the guests came during their dominant spell, but it was obvious that Ipswich had taken lessions from the opposition as they managed to pull off an amazing series of passes who eventually ended up at the feet of Daryl Murphy who slotted the ball home. 2-0 to Ipswich, both goals against the play. Nothing to worry about though, Swansea looked a class above and with just a tiny bit of luck they would easily walk this game.
Nothing much happened in the 1th half after the 2nd goal though. A few bad challenges were thrown around, and ended up with 1 yellow card to each of the teams. Oh, and Ipswich increased their lead to 4-0 just before half-time with goals by Jimmy Bullard and once again Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.
2nd half kicks off, and just like in the first half Swansea is denied a stonewall penalty. The ref was trying to show his skills, but ended up flopping in the situation, and for some reason handed out a yellow card to Scott Sinclair for diving. A freekick by Joe Allen who hit the crossbar yet again was the closest Swansea came in the 2nd half, and a goal right after the freekick by Michael Chopra made it 5-0 to the hometeam. Still, Swansea showed some promising signs and could've easily have been leading by a few goals themselves.
The fifth goal really made Swansea turn the tempo up a notch though, and the next 25 minutes could've been made into a DVD and sold as one of the best performances in Swanseas recent history. The biggest events in these magical minutes were the likes of
"Scott SINCLAIR makes space on the right, but fails to control the pass"
and
"A dangerous cross by Scott SINCLAIR races across the mouth of the goal"
but these minutes of magic ended when Ipswich were able to make it 6 and 7-0 during the last 10 minutes of the game. Thomas managed to get himself a hat-trick, and Damien Delaney got himself his first goal of the season.
A narrow defeat, but Swansea really proved to the doubters that they will be a force to reckon with in the upcoming season. It's no doubt that Burrow will get the best out of this bunch, and an European spot should not be out of reach for these promising players.
Ipswich Town - Swansea City
7-0
