And suddenly things get a lot more interesting thanks to good work by Carlos Tevez, who bulldozes his way into the Reading area before eventually being tackled at something like the fourth time of asking by the scrambling defence. The ball isn't cleared that far, though, and eventually it's played back into the area, finding Shaun Wright-Phillips in a great position. His shot is well saved by Alex McCarthy, but David Silva is first to the rebound. Somehow the winger managed to blast the ball into the prone keeper and to safety rather than scoring, but it was the first real chance of the game (the corner came to nothing).

That was the cue, apparently, for the match to turn into an enterprising, open affair, with the ball going back and forth as though it was a tennis match. The hosts are probably edging it now, on account of getting the ball into shooting positions whereas Reading aren't quite getting there, and now they have a free kick from a dangerous situation. Kolarov stands over the ball and blasts it over. Waste.