Sir Alex Ferguson on the win:
"We gave three goals away today. It could have been an embarrassment - we could have won 6-0 or 7-0 today. But in the end we still we won one of the best Manchester derbies. We have a neighbour, and sometimes neighbours are noisy, but we showed our power today and we get on with life."
We have a neighbour and sometimes they are noisy? You could not be more dismissive.
Of course, City will bemoan the amount of extra time put on but Owen could not have scored a bigger goal than that extra time killer.
The match itself was the sort which gives managers instant hypertension.
City's defense allowed Rooney to walk in with the first goal. Ben Foster was criminal in his ill advised charge and then dithered with the clearance as Tevez snatched the ball away. Anderson went to sleep as Barry charged in to receive Tevez's pass to score his first goal and equalize for City.
Fletcher was left unmarked by Barry to head his goal giving United the lead. John O'Shea was caught backpedaling against Bellamy giving acres of space for him to blast home to restore parity. Fletcher again is the beneficiary of a defensive reprieve as he heads the ball in after an unchecked run into goal. Soon after Rio Ferdinand has a meltdown giving the ball away and then futilely trying to chase Bellamy down as the ex-Liverpool man scores his second goal.
In the dying minute of extra time, Giggs splits the out of sorts City defense to find Michael Owen who slots the ball from an angle in a cool, clinical finish.
Mark Hughes has questions to ask of his defense and Sir Alex might be reminded of the Liverpool game when Nemanja Vidic had a very forgettable day. Shay Given was as good as Ben Foster was bad. In the end, the club which has probably scored more goals in extra time or close to end of regulation than any other, came out winners. Soccerblog will try and do a statistical analysis to see if this is indeed true.
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