Archive for September 2012

QPRv City (League) – Sat 05 Nov 2011 [2-3 win]

A mark of a title winning side it one that can increase the figures in the win and points columns whilst not at their best.

It’s Fireworks night and YaYa Toure doesn’t disappoint with a late winner.

Villareal v City (UEFA CL) – Tue 02 Nov 2011 [0V3 WIN]

Manchester City moved into second spot in Group A of the Champions League with a comfortable victory at Villarreal.

Roberto Mancini’s side will now qualify for the knockout stages if they win in Napoli in their next game.

Yaya Toure gave City the lead when he slotted in from just inside the area, before Mario Balotelli doubled the advantage from the spot after he was fouled by Mateo Musacchio in the box.

Yaya made it 3-0 when he jinked past Carlos Marchena before firing in.

It was as easy an exercise as the scoreline suggests, with City’s night boosted by Bayern Munich’s 3-2 win against Napoli which means their Champions League fate is in their own hands.

However, it did take the Premier League leaders 30 minutes to work out how to break Villarreal’s stubborn resistance.

The Spanish side are struggling in La Liga but looked unruffled during that opening period. They worked hard as a team to suffocate City’s dangermen of David Silva, Samir Nasri and Balotelli, who tried their utmost to conjure something out of nothing.

The opening goal came from City’s first good chance of the match. Silva finally managed to free himself from the shackles and squeeze a square ball to Yaya who shifted to his right before placing his shot low into the bottom left corner of the Villarreal goal.

The lead was doubled seconds before the break when Musacchio was deemed to have brought down Balotelli in the area. On first viewing, referee Pedro Proenca’s decision seemed rash, but the replay showed that the Argentine defender had nudged the Italian

Balotelli, making his first start in the Champions League for City, slotted in his spot-kick for his seventh goal in seven games.

Villarreal barely put up a fight after the break in a half that was played at the pace of a pre-season friendly.

City themselves rarely threatened, although their best attacking move of the match resulted in the third goal.

It began on the edge of their own area before Nasri passed inside to Balotelli, who in turn found Yaya.

The Ivorian powerhouse showed nimble feet to dance past defender Carlos Marchena and stroke in his shot from eight yards.

City v Wolves (League) – Sat 29 Oct 2011 [3v1 won]

After a 5-2 midweek win against Wolves, City put them to the sword once again and another home win and 3 points in the bag.

Wolves

United v City (League) – Sat 23 Oct 2011 [1-6 win]

Manchester United’s 6-1 defeat to Manchester City “the worst in my history” says Sir Alex Ferguson
Sir Alex Ferguson described Manchester United’s 6-1 defeat against Manchester City as an embarrassment and admitted Roberto Mancini’s team subjected him to his worst ever day in management.

Ferguson, who celebrates his 25th anniversary as United manager on Nov 6, witnessed his club’s biggest derby defeat since another 6-1 loss to City in January 1926 just one short of United’s record home defeat, a 7-1 loss to Newcastle in September 1927.

Playing with 10 men following the 47th-minute dismissal of defender Jonny Evans, United on Sunday capitulated in the dying stages as City ran in three late goals. But with City moving five points clear of United with their emphatic victory, Ferguson admitted he had never experienced such a dark day as a manager.


It was our worst ever day, Ferguson said. It’s the worst result in my history, ever. Even as a player I don’t think I ever lost 6-1. I can’t believe the scoreline. The first goal was a blow for sure, but it was retrievable at 1-0.

I’m shattered, I can’t believe it. It was an incredible disappointment, but we will react, no question about that. It’s a perfect result for us to react to because there is a lot of embarrassment in the dressing room and quite rightly so and that will make an impact. You have to recover. The history of Manchester United is ‘another day’ and we will recover.

The humiliation of United’s defeat resulted in the club’s American owners, the Glazer family, being barracked and jostled by home supporters as they travelled from the players’ tunnel to an awaiting helicopter.

Sources in the tunnel reported angry chanting outside as the Glazers left the stadium for their transport to Wembley for the NFL fixture between their Tampa Bay Buccaneers team and the Chicago Bears. Rio Ferdinand, the United defender, cancelled his plan to travel to the game for a guest appearance on the pitch.

With three City goals coming in the final minutes, however, Ferguson insisted that United contributed to their downfall.

The sending off was the killer blow, Ferguson said. After that, we kept attacking. I thought with the experience we’ve got Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra they would have [defended more] but we just kept attacking.

It’s all right playing the history books [United’s reputation for fighting back] but common sense has to come into it. When we went to 3-1, 4-1 we should have settled for that. We kept attacking when we went 4-1 down and we should have just said: ‘We’ve had our day’. They were attacking three versus two. It was crazy football and it was a bad day.

But we’ll come back. By January, we’ll be OK. We usually get the show on the road in the second half of the season and that will have to be the case. Over the years we have always enjoyed a better goal difference than our rivals but after today, we are 10 goals short.

Despite his team’s incredible victory, City manager Mancini played down the significance of the result.

I’m satisfied because we beat United away and I don’t think there are a lot of teams that could win here, he said. But I’m not satisfied for the 6-1 it’s because this is important for our supporters and maybe for the goals in the table. I am happy with the three points.

Against Tottenham we played very well and against Bolton, but this is different because we played against a strong team like United. In the end there are three points, finished, we don’t take six points for this game.

I think the season will be very long and probably four or five teams that can win the title.

This is important for our confidence, it’s important because we showed that we are a good team, but we should appreciate the mentality United had because after 1-0 and the sending off, they continued to play to score. I think that’s a very important mentality.

Mancini, who shared a post-match drink with the United manager, claimed he took no satisfaction from humiliating the Scot.

No, because I have big respect for him, Mancini said. I have big respect for United because we are talking a top manager and a top squad.

I still think United are one yard above us. I think we can only change this after we win the title in the end. After, maybe it will be different, but now United are better than us.

A great day was had at Old Trafford by all the blues and we made it onto TV