A brace by Erling Haaland either side of half-time, followed by a Phil Foden tap-in, created by the Norwegian, settled the derby in the pouring rain.
The result ends a run of three successive victories for Erik ten Hag’s team, who were on the wrong end of a major VAR decision in the first half, allowing Haaland to open the scoring from the spot.
FIRST HALF – VAR’S BIG CALL
The Reds kicked off with a chorus of “there’s only one Bobby Charlton”
still ringing around the Theatre of Dreams, following a minute of applause as part of our pre-match commemorations of one of the game’s true legends.
Using that energy, United started brightly and created early opportunities in behind, as well as putting City under pressure in possession to force mistakes. Bruno Fernandes pounced to the win the ball high up the pitch, allowing Scott McTominay to drive at the backtracking defence but unfortunately his effort was saved.
For the visitors, Rodri set a dangerous move in motion with a deep ball forward, which was kept in on the byline via the head of Kyle Walker for Foden to nod towards goal. Getting across to it, Andre Onana saved the attempt before then acrobatically getting a hand to the ball to deny the lurking Haaland, and Harry Maguire cleared the danger.
The big controversial moment came for a harsh decision against Rasmus Hojlund, with VAR flagging contact between his arm and Rodri in the box, some time after the incident occurred. Referee Paul Tierney was sent to the monitor and decided to award the spot-kick, which Haaland dragged into the corner of the net, having sent Onana the wrong way.
Five minutes later, Hojlund was set free by an errant Foden pass and bearing down on the keeper, but was disturbed by John Stones’s pull before he could apply the finishing touch to restore parity. After skipping over Ederson’s challenge, he teed up Fernandes who put the recycled effort over the bar.
The tide in the half then turned in favour of the Blues and United were soaking up City’s possession before the break, with Onana producing a save from Julian Alvarez after Jack Grealish was brought down by Jonny Evans to the left of the area.
In added time, both keepers produced sublime saves. First, McTominay was again denied by Ederson who used his arm to turn away a powerful shot down the middle, from Rashford’s incisive through ball. Then Haaland looked to have the goal at his mercy, but a flying Onana got back to push the ball out with a simply wonderful stop.
With a tide to turn, United again came out positively and a short corner from Marcus Rashford allowed Fernandes to unleash and effort on goal but Ederson was equal to it.
Unfortunately, the lead was doubled when Haaland added his second, similar to the effort that Onana saved at the end of the first half, but nothing could be done about the close-range header this time as he was left unmarked to convert Bernardo Silva’s cross for 2-0.
In the ascendancy, Pep Guardiola’s side created more opportunities soon after, including through Grealish who dropped his shoulder to cut inside and curled a strike which was goalbound until Onana pushed it away.
Rashford had a chance to get one back with little over 20 minutes to go when he latched onto a ball over the top and impressively turned Walker inside, out, allowing him a short on goal form inside the box. But as Rashford had to contort his body to hit the ball back across goal, it agonisingly went the wrong side of the post.
At the other end, Haaland was eyeing up a hat-trick just a couple of minutes later, but was denied by Onana who was quick to pounce when the ball was played through and put his body on the line to save the strike.
In the 80th minute, it was 3-0. Onana was again called into action to save Rodri’s deflected shot from the edge of the box and as the ball was pushed wide, Haaland collected and crossed low for Foden to steer into the net.
Stoppage time saw the heat of the derby lead to both substitute Antony and Fernandes go into the referee’s notebook, while City finished things with a free-kick just outside the Reds’ penalty area which Haaland blasted into the wall.
MATCH DETAILS
United: Onana; Dalot, Evans, Maguire, Lindelof (Reguilon 74); Fernandes, Amrabat (Mount 46), McTominay, Eriksen (Antony 86); Hojlund (Garnacho 74), Rashford (Martial 86).
Subs not used: Bayindir, Varane, Hannibal, Mainoo.
Booked: Onana, Amrabat, Antony, Fernandes.
City: Ederson; Walker, Dias, Gvardiol; Rodri, Stones; Foden, Silva, Alvarez (Kovacic 87), Grealish (Doku 87); Haaland.
Subs not used: Ortega, Ake, Bobb, Gomez, Lewis, Nunes, Phillips.
Goals: Haaland 26, 49 Foden 80.
Booked: Foden.
