Manchester City travelled to Old Trafford to face off against their fierce rivals Manchester United and came away battered and bruised in a 4-2 defeat. While Sergio Agueroa s goals were little consolation for the visiting side, it was all Manchester United after their equalizer, racing away to 4 goals to seal the game and put it beyond their neighbours.
City started the game confidently enough, with Agueroa s goal coming inside the first 10 minutes, firing his team into the lead. In fact, City were on Uniteda s toes the opening few minutes, and pressed them and harried them, creating 3 clear chances quickly.
However, the lead was short lived, as a De Gea clearance found its way to Ashley Young through Ander Herrera who knocked the ball into the goal from close range to level the scores. From there on, the game drifted away from City as the red half of Manchester found their way into the game and took the chances that came to them.
While Fellaini seemed offside when he scored the second goal for United, it was marginal at best and certainly not one that can be totally blamed on the referee. But the second half had a similar story, only this time City couldna t find a goal. United pressed forward in their quest for goals and a third goal duly arrived in the form of Juan Mata, who also looked to be offside when he was given the pass by Rooney. But the flag didna t go up, and the goal stood, making life difficult for City. When Chris Smalling scored the 4th goal in the 73rd minute, Agueroa s second of the match and 100th for Manchester City came as little consolation.
After the game, manager Manuel Pellegrini refused to blame the referee for the loss.
a They [United] played very well after the first 20 minutes when we had played very well and had two or three clear chances to score but we didna t and they started probing,a he reflected.
a From the moment they drew level they started to play well and from then the third goal was a pivotal moment as they were two goals ahead and they were playing with a lot of trust.
a I repeat: I dona t want to analyse the refereea s decision a they have to do their work. Maybe the third goal was offside but that was just one thing that happened during this game.”
The City boss said: a Fellainia s in a good moment but Yaya marked him very well in the first half a after that we had to take more risks and they had space – finally they won the game.
a I dona t think it was a problem of pace or the United team a it was our own mistakes on at least two goals. We had a lot chances at the start of the game to score another goal.
a Ita s not easy to play with more pace and trust when youa re two goals down and they have more of the ball.
a We must continue working a we have six more games to try and to be as high in the table as we can.a