Well, welcome back here. Next, I will tell you the the second half of the match.
The second half started as the first had begun, with De Gea at his brilliant best to deny Aguero. For some reason the United defence seemed to stand off the little striker in the box and he picked his spot in the far corner. Luckily for United, De Gea was alert to the danger and threw himself to his left again to make the save.
Next to go into the book for City was captain Vincent Kompany for a very late challenge on Rooney, which left the United captain flattened. In the past few weeks, Jesus Navas has come in for a lot of criticism and after he back-heeled the ball out of play for no particular reason he was hauled off. With Samir Nasri still deemed too troublesome, it was Aleksander Kolarov who came on with Milner switching to the right flank.
The change immediately paid dividends as City hit United on the counter. After the ball was (partially) cleared by Marouane Fellaini, who we forgot was playing, it was played into the path of Kolarov. Every United defender had stepped up to catch the Serbian in an offside trap but sadly Marcos Rojo didn’t get the memo and played Kolarov on. Although known for his fierce left-footed shots, Kolarov elected to curl the ball into the corner with his right to give his team the lead. As if Rojo couldn’t have done more damage, he then proceeded to tackle De Gea as Kolarov was shooting.
United were rattled and as on so many occasions over the past few years, they looked to Rooney for inspiration and he so nearly pulled it off. Picking the ball up on the edge of the box, Rooney left Toure for dead with a lovely piece of skill but he rushed his shot, putting it wide of Hart’s goal. The United skipper then forced a world-class save out of Hart when he hit a shot with bend and dip from the edge of the area.
Van Gaal pushed for the equaliser by calling for Adnan Januzaj and Angel Di Maria but his team was about to be sucker-punched in the cruellest way possible. In the final seconds as United threw everyone forward, the Red Devils were caught on the counter as Aguero and City substitute Dzeko broke. The Bosnian played the ball through to Aguero and the City man kept his cool to lift the ball over De Gea. City close the gap on Chelsea whilst United drop down to fourth.
I don’t know if you are satisfactoried to this match. Please share your views by leaving comments below.