Man Utd 1 Man City 3: Citizens take commanding first-leg lead after destroying neighbours in Carabao Cup semi
THIS WAS NOTHING short of embarrassing for Manchester United.
Out thought, out fought, out played.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said Manchester City had raised the bar in English football.
Well it is one his side simply cannot reach.
In fact the only bar the fans wanted to find last night was one to drown their sorrows in.
Plenty of Dry January’s will have come to a shuddering halt for Red Devils fans last night and long before the final whistle.
Some were off before the second-half of this Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg had even kicked off.
In his programme notes United boss Solskjaer said: “A Manchester derby in a cup semi-final is just the kind of platform on which the players can show their capabilities.”
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Try, ‘limitatiions’ instead.
We were expecting a proper cup tie and we got one. One those cup ties that are actually more regular than you think but ones we tend to forget.
The ones where one team is so obviously better than the other that the two sides should not be on the same pitch.
The ones where the lower side huff and puff but never look like blowing the house down.
This was all very humbling for United as the difference between the two sides and where they are at was brutally exposed in a first half that brought boos tumbling down the Old Trafford stands.
It was 3-0 by then, it could have been five.
United’s belief that they could win this tie based on their 2-1 Premier League derby victory at the Etihad last month was badly misplaced.
That day they did play very well. Brilliant on the break.
But that is all they can do. There is no plan B. Pep Guardiola wasn’t going to be caught out again.
He didn’t even need a striker with Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus starting on the bench.
Instead he had Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva floating around where they wanted to, and United’s back four and bench wondering who was supposed to pick up who.
In the end nobody was picking up anybody, City were just picking United apart.
The first goal in the 17th minute came from a cracking finish courtesy of Bernardo.
Mind you he would have had less space to execute it in the warm up
Cutting inside from the left both Fred and Phil Jones barely moved to shut him down allowing the City star space to blast a shot into the far top corner.
Number two came on 33 minutes, Bernardo this time the supplier with a through ball that Victor Lindelof failed to cut out.
Riyad Mahrez was on to it, rounding David De Gea and sliding the ball into an empty net.
The third came five minutes later and was almost comical.
Bernardo was unstoppable, this time playing the ball into the equally elusive De Bruyne whose shot came off the inside of De Gea’s right calf shot across the six-yard box and went in off Andreas Pereira for an own goal.
It was the first time United had conceded three first half goals here since 1997 against Middlesbrough.
However they had also scored two in that first period and went on to draw the game 3-3.
No hope of that last night.
Solskjaer’s response at half-time was to bring off Jesse Lingard, much to the delight of United fans.
The only problem came was when Nemanja Matic was announced as his replacement.
The idea was to let Pereira move a bit further forward but it felt like damage limitation.
Even if Pereira was further forward, what difference was it going to make?
In the end United did get something to hang onto when in the 70th minute against the run of play Mason Greenwood put Marcus Rashford through and he tucked a shot into the far bottom corner.
From that point on City were happy to see the game and their two goal first leg advantage out.
As ever Solskjaer will try and put a brave face on it all.
But it will take a PR spin guru of special talent to put any sort of gloss on this.
Up in the main stand Sir Alex Ferguson and his former No2 and ex-England manager Steve McClaren looked on expressionless at what they were witnessing.
It was just over a decade ago that Sir Alex was asked if United would ever go into a Manchester derby as ‘underdogs’?
WNot in my lifetime," he replied.
Not in his managerial lifetime anyway.
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For every season since he retired they have finished above United.
They have taken giant strides while United have gone backwards.
The bookmakers made them odds against last night and they were right.
The blue moon continues to eclipse the red flag.