Man City 2 - 2 Blackburn

Roque Santa Cruz ended Blackburn's four-game losing streak with a controversial late equaliser to seal a 2-2 draw at Manchester City on Thursday.

Santa Cruz took his tally to seven goals in his last four games with the 82nd minute header which had initially been ruled out for offside by the linesman Darren Cann before being awarded by referee Howard Webb.

It was a crucial goal that ended City's hopes of claiming ten successive league home wins and moving into fourth spot in the Premiership ahead of Liverpool, who visit Eastlands on Sunday.

Although City's unbeaten home record this season went up in smoke with the 2-0 League Cup defeat against Spurs last week, their 100-percent Premiership record at Eastlands remained intact ahead of the clash with Mark Hughes's men.

And after a slow start, Sven-Goran Eriksson's side took the lead as the game burst to life with three goals inside three minutes midway through the first-half.

By that stage, Rolando Bianchi had already missed an easy chance for the home side when he failed to score from three yards after being teed up by Martin Petrov's precise cross from the left.

But City were able to break the deadlock on 27 minutes when Bulgarian midfielder Petrov once again broke down the left, beating the out-of-position full-back Zurab Khizanishvili far too easily, before crossing for former England striker Darius Vassell to head in at the far post.

However, just a minute after falling behind, Blackburn had hauled themselves level when Paraguayan striker Santa Cruz headed David Bentley's free-kick past goalkeeper Joe Hart at the near post.

City's defence made it easy for the former Bayern Munich man to score by allowing him to work himself free inside the six yard box.

Blackburn, with just one win in nine games ahead of this clash, were not able to celebrate for long, however, as City reclaimed the lead sixty seconds later with Petrov once again at the heart of the move.

Yet again, he beat Khizanishvili before evading a Christopher Samba challenge on the edge of the box.

Free of attention, Petrov pulled the ball across the face of goal, but just as Bianchi looked set to score, Rovers captain Ryan Nelsen beat him to it by inadvertently diverting the ball into his own net.

The shell-shocked Khizanishvili was replaced at half-time by striker Benni McCarthy as Hughes attempted to boost his team's attacking threat.

But City continued to dominate, even if clear-cut chances proved to thin on the ground.

Blackburn struggled to threaten Hart and, when Morten Gamst Pedersen was picked out by Brett Emerton at the far post on the hour mark, the Norwegian could only direct his volley against the body of City defender Micah Richards.

City substitute Elano then went close to sealing the points eight minutes with a stunning volley from 20 yards that unluckily dipped the wrong side of the post to let Blackburn off the hook.

But Santa Cruz claimed the decisive strike when he headed Bentley's cross into the net from close range eight minutes from time.