Manchester United V Manchester City 3–1

Paul Scholes

Manchester City´s search for their first ma­jor trophy since 1976 con­tin­ues fol­low­ing their loss to Manchester United at Old Traf­ford yes­ter­day. The Blues were 2–1 ahead from the first leg of the Carling Cup Semi Fi­nals last week but a fine header from Wayne Rooney saw the hosts ad­vance to the Foot­ball League Cup Fi­nal 4–3 on aggregate.

Al­though no goals were pro­duced dur­ing the open­ing 45 minutes, the derby en­counter was ac­tion packed right from the be­gin­ning. As the game went on Manchester United settled down and got into their stride. A mere seven minutes into the second period the home team went ahead as mid­field or­ches­trator Paul Scholes scored his fourth goal of the cam­paign, bril­liantly steer­ing the ball into the net from some eight­een yards out. The goal was then fol­lowed by a long period of pres­sure from Manchester United and the red shirts looked to have sealed the tie when Mi­chael Car­rick slot his side into the lead in the 70th minute of the con­test. Roberto Mancini´s Manchester City team man­aged to hit back just six minutes later, how­ever, when con­tro­ver­sial front­man Car­los Tevez scored after beat­ing Rio Ferdin­and to the ball and then flick­ing it past ever­green shot stop­per Ed­win van der Sar. The goal looked to have en­sured ex­tra time un­til a mag­ni­fi­cent cross from pre­vi­ous Wales in­ter­na­tional Ryan Giggs found the ever dan­ger­ous Wayne Rooney who headed the ball into the back of the net from just six yards out. Shortly after the fi­nal whistle loudly pro­claimed that Manchester City re­main the poor re­la­tions of foot­ball. A wise man once said that if you want to an­noy your neigh­bour, all you have to do is to tell the truth about him. How very true. Manchester United: Ed­win van der Sar, Rio Ferdin­and, Ra­fael da Silva, Jonny Evans, Patrice Evra, Dar­ren Fletcher, Mi­chael Car­rick, Paul Scholes, Luis Nani, Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs. Sub­sti­tutes: Wes Brown, Ant­o­nio Valencia.

Manchester United Books