STONES STRIKE SHATTERS OLE
Fernandinho piles on semi-final pain for United
And so it is Pep Guardiola versus Jose Mourinho at Wembley. For the least significant of the cup competitions, the Carabao Cup does seem to rally some pretty substantial names to its cause.
This will be Manchester City’s fourth consecutive appearance in the final, too, matching the record set by Liverpool between 1981 and 1984.
Most ominously for Tottenham, Guardiola has only ever lost two ties in the competition and both were against Manchester United. not last night, mind.
City were the superior team here, even if their victory was built on unlikely foundations — a goal from John Stones and another from Fernandinho.
It was 1,162 days since Stones’ last for the club — against napoli in 2017 — and this one was bundled in off a thigh, a testament to determination more than any training-ground scheme.
As for Fernandinho, this was his first goal since a 5-0 win over Burnley on October 20, 2018, and he is the 17th City player to appear on the score sheet this season. no wonder Guardiola thinks he can get away without strikers.
It is another game in an already overcrowded schedule, of course, yet nobody in blue was complaining last night.
The Carabao Cup may be fourth in any elite club’s wish list, but all derby victories have meaning, certainly one that condemned Manchester United to a fourth straight semi-final defeat.
And bragging rights are bragging rights, whether the taunts come on the factory floor or, in these strange times, over Zoom. City’s display merited a little crowing, too. They were the most positive team, attack to United’s defence, and the best that can be said of their opponents was that they were organised.
City were that, and potent. Even without a conventional front-line presence they had more cutting edge, and it does not bode well for United’s title challenge that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team have got into the habit of losing the big ones.
Leading after 50 minutes, any fear that City might not be able to hang on as United searched for an equaliser ended when Fernandinho made it 2- 0 with seven minutes to go.
City won a corner, taken on the right by Kevin de Bruyne and United spurned two chances to clear. Anthony Martial’s initial header didn’t quite get far enough, but at least it fell to a team-mate, Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Sadly, his header was absolutely dismal. Tame and short and straight to Fernandinho, who struck a low shot from outside the area. It emerged through a crowd of players and left goalkeeper dean Henderson flatfooted, still upright as it went in at his near post.
The win was well deserved. At half-time it was 2-1 to Manchester City, but sadly this was just in disallowed goals.
Everything correct and done properly, it must be said, but a little infuriating given the instruction not to raise the flag until the ball is in the net.
For marginal calls, sure, this is a worthy rule, but some of these were blindingly obvious and plainly visible in real time. Yet play goes on with the threat of collision and injury, certainly in a no-quarter-given derby, with a place at Wembley at stake.
By the end of the half, Guardiola was so fed up he could be heard berating fourth official david Coote on the subject, his voice echoing around Old Trafford, cavernous and empty. And understandably so.
One move had ended with an absolutely ferocious 50-50 between Paul Pogba and Stones, met with winces and flinches around the stadium. Only then did a flag go up to signal offside against Marcus Rashford several phases before. Ridiculous.
A player could have had his leg broken, and for what? We know the logic but, as ever, it is being applied without reason. despite these frustrations it was an
excellent game. City had the best of it, but United were wellorganised and absorbed their pressure impressively in the first half at least.
There was just one opportunity at each end across the opening 45 minutes and neither set of forwards could claim to truly have breached the defensive barriers.
Manchester United had two opportunities in the ninth minute, in fact — their first chance and pretty much their last. It came after Raheem Sterling had lost possession and Scott McTominay fed Bruno Fernandes, who tried a shot from outside the area.
Zack Steffen, in goal in place of Ederson, one of City’s Covid victims, tipped the ball wide acrobatically with one hand.
Shortly after, at the opposite end, Sterling set up De Bruyne, whose shot defeated Henderson — another stand-in, but out of choice, not necessity — but not the far post. The ball cannoned out to safety and United breathed a sigh of relief. It was not the only time.
City had the lion’s share of possession and their threat grew as the game wore on. Ilkay Gundogan had the ball in the net, as did Phil Foden, but neither legally, and for the most part City’s work was done with massed United ranks between them and the goal.
Yet when the deadlock was finally broken, it was no surprise it went to the team in blue.
McTominay fouled Sterling, and De Bruyne and Foden stood over the free-kick. City’s playmaker deferred to the younger man and he whipped in an excellent ball, that appeared to clip McTominay and catch out Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire, covering. Not Stones, though. He continued his run to the far post and deflected ted the ball into the net.
United’s players were left to squabble about culpability, but t it was no more than City deserved. ed. They were the better team and nd should have made it two after 57 minutes, when an excellent counter-attack unwn from deep in their own half saw Foden cross and Sterling ng steer his header towards the near ar post, where it was turned round nd for a corner by Henderson.
By now City looked dangerous us with every attack and, when n Pogba conceded possession n after 61 minutes, the resulting g break saw Riyad Mahrez force e another fine save from Henderson, rn tipping the ball over.
From United? Not much. An aerial chance fell to Martial, , when a cross deflected off f Stones, but he did little with it, , jumping with the smaller Oleksandr Zinchenko, but losing g the flight of the ball as it hit his chest and dribbled tamely wide. A dive by the same player soon after failed to win a penalty and did him little credit.
And, yes, this has become ea a strange fixture with the home team winning just three of the last 15 meetings — but it would be flippant to blame home disadvantage for this reverse. City simply look the better team right now, even without conventional strikers, another fact that should concern those who think United will be major players in the title race.
They will have to raise their game considerably from here if that dream is to become reality.