Two converted penalties have left Stoke City and Swansea City level at 1-1 at the interval of their Premier League encounter at the Britannia Stadium this afternoon.
The visitors came close to opening the scoring after seven minutes when Wayne Routledge fed Gylfi Sigurdsson, who rounded Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic inside the box, but the attacker's touch was just too heavy and the chance passed.
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Swans midfielder Ki Sung-yueng then struck his effort at Begovic after being put through by Sigurdsson, before Charlie Adam fired wide at the other end as both sides began to make their mark with 10 minutes on the clock.
The match continued to flow from end-to-end as the half progressed, with Victor Moses and Peter Crouch threatening for the hosts and Sigurdsson leading the fight for the visitors.
Mame Biram Diouf was next to come close for the home side after breaking into the Swansea box just before the 30-minute mark, but Neil Taylor was across to makes a fine block.
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Minutes later, Swansea had a penalty when Ryan Shawcross was penalised for pulling Wilfried Bony to the ground inside the box. The Ivorian stepped up for the Welsh outfit and sent his effort into the corner of the net.
The hosts put the pressure on in the latter stages of the half and had a penalty of their own after 43 minutes when Angel Rangel was adjudged to have felled a lightweight Moses inside the box. Adam stepped up to equalise for the Potters.
Matt Law
