England’s “El’Cashico” ends with the blue half of Manchester winning the derby by Adenami Ogunrinde
It was a must win derby encounter for the biggest clubs in Manchester, England yesterday. The game was crucial for Manchester City who had not won in the last three outings and United needed the psychological boost of all three points.
After the final whistle blew, it was the blue half of Manchester that claimed the bragging rights courtesy of a winning goal by Sergio Aguero to ease the mounting pressure on Manuel Pellegrini. Louis Van Gaal on the hand was left frustrated by Smalling’s stupidity which led to the red card that titled the tie in city’s favour. The return of their captain Wayne Rooney was a boost for the red devils but he spent most of the game playing from deep to assist the leaking defence. As a result, Robin Van Persie was left with an overwhelming amount of work to do in United’s attack.
Despite the red card that changed the gripping contest, Manchester United’s expensively assembled squad gave City’s millionaires a run for their money. In spite of their numerical advantage they were forced to labour to victory. The blues were very cautious in their approach to the encounter bearing in mind their recent run of form. They were cagey and compact even though they had an attacking threat like Edin Dzeko at their disposal. The likes of Gael Clichy, Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta put in fine defensive performances to silence the explosive wing play of Angel Di Maria and Adnan Januzaj while Manchester City missed the creative spark of the injured David Silva.
Midfield battles are known to win matches but what won this clash of Manchester at the end of the day were the defensive line-ups. Jamie Redknapp, speaking on Sky Sports, labelled United’s defence ‘the worst you’ll ever see’. One has to agree with Redknapp’s observation – after Chris Smalling’s red card, Michael Carrick returned from injury at centre back for United. Nineteen year old McNair came on when Marcos Rojo dislocated his shoulder, and Sergio Aguero capitalized on his inexperience for City’s winning goal. The defensive line-up of Manchester City on the hand was extremely solid to the last minute to deny Robin Van persie the last minute heroics that saw him grab all the headlines last week. Well done City!