Roque Santa Cruz hit his second goal of the game with seven minutes remaining to help Blackburn snap a three-game losing streak with a 2-2 draw at Manchester City.

Brad Friedel took his usual place in goal for the visitors, working all 90 minutes.

After a tepid opening phase of the match, the action picked up considerably after the 20-minute mark. After Zurab Khizanishvili fired over from a good position for Rovers, Rolando Bianchi followed suit at the other end by somehow failing to convert a doorstep Martin Petrov feed.

The Bulgaria star got loose on the left again in the 27th minute, and this time, Darius Vassell made no mistake with his far post cross by heading home the opener.

The lead only lasted a minute as Santa Cruz got to the end of a David Bentley free kick to equalize.

On the half hour, Citeh regained their advantage when former DC United defender Ryan Nelsen inadvertently put a Petrov cross into his own net.

Blackburn carried play in the second half, but were unable to create any prime scoring chances until Bentley passed an 83rd minute corner kick along to Santa Cruz, who beat both Joe Hart and an initial offside flag to level matters.

Rovers, who climbed a spot to ninth, will remain on the road to face Derby County on Sunday.

Scoring
MC - Darius Vassell 2 (Martin Petrov) 27'
BLA - Roque Santa Cruz 8 (David Bentley) 28'
MC - Own Goal Ryan Nelsen) 30'
BLA - Roque Santa Cruz 9 (David Bentley) 83'

Line-ups
MC - Joe Hart; Nedum Onuoha, Richard Dunne, Micah Richards, Michael Ball, Vedran Corluka, Fernandes Gelson, Stephen Ireland (Javier Garrido 78'), Martin Petrov, Rolando Bianchi (Elano 64'), Darius Vassell

BLA - Brad Friedel; Zurab Khizanishvili (Benni McCarthy 46'), Ryan Nelsen, Christopher Samba, Bruno Berner, Brett Emerton, Steven Reid, David Dunn (Tugay 90'), Morten Gamst Pedersen, David Bentley, Roque Santa Cruz (Jason Roberts 90')