Tag Archive for Kompany

City v Newcastle(League) – Sun 30th March [4v0 win]

Met 10 or 12 City fans in Aberdeen airport which is great as half of them I don’t know. Spoke to John Booth and his wife from Ellon. They manage four games a season due to work commitments so it was good to catch up with them. Johns one the lucky ones who has never seen City beaten when he’s been to watch them. I do know people who have never seen them win, but that’s changing thankfully.

Met Des & Alan Fergie at the airport and took possession of the semi final tickets when we got to the ground.

Now the tram service is running it makes things a lot easier getting to and from the Etihad which is worth noting – the taxi drivers must be suffering badly.

Now to the football : City played well, the way the goals were executed was brilliant, it was freezing cold and Newcastle must improve if they are to carry on in the Europa Cup.

Strangely Samir Nasri was given man of the match and although he played well and was probably substituted due to injury,I thought Gareth Barry was superb once again.

It was good to see Kompany & Aguerro back in action. sometimes you don’t realise how much Vinny is missed until he starts playing again and he scored a poachers goal as well.

Aguerro just frightens the life out of defences and we need him fit now for the forthcoming cup games.

For once I thought the referee was extremely competent for a change, Neil Swarbrick, he let the game flow and booked those offenders who required calming down. He also had words with the time wasting goal keeper which is unusual.

Normally United fans don’t appear to discuss favourite games & favourite goals but MUFC appear to be resurrecting the Rooney overhead kick goal for some reason or other, bearing in mind that was two seasons ago, they normally put these nothing’s bed quite quickly.

Are they started to run scared? Food for thought.

City v Man U (League) 30 April [1v0 win]

Kompany header seals the day

City held their nerve and completed the double over United to re-take top spot in Premier League.

Now if Roberto Mancini’s men match United in the last two games the likelihood is that they will be crowned champions for the first time in 44 years.

The points and possibly the destination of the title were decided, fittingly, by Vincent Kompany’s towering first half header.

Depending on where you do your reading this coruscating episode of neighbours was watched by between 300 and 600million sets of eyes and worth between £200 and £500million.

The mother of all derbies, the demolition derby, titanic, epic, landscape-changing, momentous, tumultuous, gripping, huge, colossal were just some of the scores of adjectives used to describe the game in the wall-to-wall build-up.

So did it live up to the hype? How could any match live up to such lofty expectations? But right now City fans don’t care.

All the ingredients were there. There was some serious retro anger and enmity in the stands, the noise levels exceeded all decent limits set by the local authority and a galaxy of stars strutted the verdant green stage as if they owned it.

But by and large neither side found the fluency, touch and killer instinct that hard earned City the best home record in the Premier League and United the best away record.

In front of the game’s great and good, the Etihad Stadium rocked like it has never done before. This was English tribalism at its most raw. Every blue and red sinew was strained in a bid to deliver the victory that the rival factions packed into the stands demanded.

Football purity was not on the invitee list to this most local of parties beamed to a global audience that may well have been bemused and amused in equal measure by the bile and the ditties echoing around the stadium and duelling for attention.

Neither manager sprang any real surprises with their starting elevens. Roberto Mancini stuck to the side that won at Wolves so resisting the temptation to bring back his blond bombshell Mario Balotelli. Instead the Italian striker who began the six-goal avalanche at Old Trafford back in October was on the bench.

Alex Ferguson, who knew a draw would be to his side’s advantage in the race for the crown, took a cautious approach. He left most of his attacking arsenal on the bench asking Wayne Rooney to carry the goal threat.

His plan worked a treat in the opening 44 minutes with United content to block avenues and sit back inviting the home side to find a way through if they could.

In truth despite the best efforts of the fans, the impressive Samir Nasri and two chances fired wide by Kun Aguero, watched by his father-in-law Diego Maradona , it was tepid stuff. Tepid, that is, until Kompany rose like the colossus he is to head home from David Silva’s right flank corner.

The second half was always going to be more open and the goal brought an improvement in City’s confidence levels and passing. United brought on Danny Welbeck and the whole game had a dollop more purpose and poise.

DeGea kicked away a Yaya Toure effort as the intensity grew. The Blues looked at their best – and the Reds at their most vulnerable – when they ran at the visitors from deep.

But Carlos Tevez ran out of steam which necessitated a change of formation with Nigel De Jong deployed to stifle United’s sudden attack intent and Toure pushed up to support Aguero.

The last ten minutes were open and angry. The managers had a less than edifying spat on the touchline but still City pressed for the second clinching goal and Toure went close with a shot from the edge of the box that skimmed the post.

Now everyone has to forget this win and concentrate on Newcastle because nothing less than two wins is likely to be good enough. No more twists please!

City v Villa (League) – Sat 15 Oct 2011 [4v1 won]

We went down to this match with My Mum and Dad and was quite nervy knowing that we had a must win CL game directly afterwards.

An amazing performance from City despite resting creative wizards Silva and Nasri.

Goals from Balotelli 29, Johnson 46, Kompany 51, Milner 70 sharing the love throughout the team.

Villa couldn’t cope with us today with Villa old boys Milner and Barry showing why they made the move to City with strong performances.

Another strong 4 goal win, goal difference could be important this season