MAN CITY MAN UTD BLUE MOON RISING
Zabaleta: We knew we’d rule Manchester after 2011 FA Cup semi-final win
SM1
PABLO ZABALETA looks back on it as the moment when Manchester turned blue.
FA Cup semi-final day, 2011. When the first meeting between City and United at Wembley was won by Yaya Toure’s strike – and the club that had lived in the shadow of their rivals for so long emerged into the sunshine.
Toure found the back of the same net again the following month as City beat Stoke to lift their first trophy in 35 years – and, a decade on, they are closing in on a fifth Premier League title while their neighbours are left to pine for Sir Alex Ferguson.
For Zabaleta, the Argentine who became an Etihad cult hero after joining City just a few days before Sheikh Mansour’s takeover in the summer of 2008, knocking United out was a watershed moment.
“Even after the takeover, when the new owners had started signing big players, all we got when we played United was disappointment,” he said.
“There was a 4-3, when Michael Owen scored the winner in injury time, a last-minute goal by Paul Scholes at the Etihad, and a defeat in the semi-final (of the League Cup) when Wayne Rooney scored at the end.
“That wasn’t by accident, it was because Ferguson had built a winning mentality.
“When we played them at Wembley, the most important thing that season was to qualify for the Champions League for the first time – but it was the perfect game to show we could be winners.
“It was the day when we told United that we could beat them, that we could beat any team and
that now we would fight for trophies.
“It was a huge step forward to beat United and win the FA Cup. I think it created the mentality that has made City the best team in England over the last 10 years.”
Zabaleta can now laugh at the knee-high challenge that earned Scholes a late red card.
“Perhaps Paul knew what losing that game to City would mean,” he added.
United went on to clinch the title that season, but the next Premier
League meeting at Old
Trafford saw City run riot 6-1.
Later in the campaign, Vincent Kompany’s header put Roberto Mancini’s men top of the table on goal difference on a febrile night at the Etihad.
A victory at Newcastle and that dramatic last-day win over Queens Park Rangers secured City’s first title since 1968.
Although Ferguson reclaimed the crown before retiring in 2013, City have been champions three times since.
And Pep Guardiola’s side go into today’s derby sitting 14 points clear of their rivals.
It has been a huge shift of power – and not one Zabaleta envisaged when he
arrived in a £6.5million deal from Espanyol for a nine-year spell in which he became a City legend.
Zabaleta, who retired last summer after three years with West Ham, said: “When I first came to Manchester, it was unthinkable that City would become better than United.
“The owners knew that they had to build a structure and have the right people running different areas of the business.
“When Khaldoon (Al Mubarak) became chairman, it was more important than signing Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure and Kevin De Bruyne.
“Khaldoon (left) makes every player feel part of the family. He is a great man who has played the most important role in City’s success. He is always talking to the players, asking if they are happy, asking about your family, if you need something.
“That’s why players, who could have played for any club, stay with City for nine or 10 years.”
Zabaleta added: “When some people talk about Manchester City, it is all money, money, money.
“But money can’t buy you love – and I can tell you that, once you play for City, you feel the love.
“When players look at joining a new club, it is not history that is most important, but the future.
“The owners haven’t just built a team. They built a new training ground, improved the stadium and developed the local area.
“It’s been a massive commitment, not just to Manchester City but the city of Manchester.”
Khaldoon makes every player feel part of the family.
great man He is a and has been most important
success in City’s
Date of birth: Place of birth:
Height:
Chief Football Writer
IN Norman Whiteside’s first Manchester derby, the Irishman tackled a City rival with such ferocity that the player ended up in Sir Matt Busby’s lap.
He reckons Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United team will have to show the same kind of desire if they are to return from the Etihad with their 21-game unbeaten away record still intact.
Whiteside, the Old
Trafford legend who broke into Ron
Atkinson’s team at 16 and is still the youngest player in World Cup history, was never on the losing side in a battle between the Reds and Blues.
He still remembers with pride scoring the goal that gave Sir Alex Ferguson victory in his first FA Cup tie as United boss in January 1987.
But it was as a schoolboy playing in a youth five-a-side tournament when he first came to realise what the Manchester derby means.
“I was about 13 or 14 when United brought me over from Belfast to play in a tournament at Stretford Leisure Centre,” recalled Whiteside.
“Sir Matt Busby came to watch – and we were all told in no uncertain terms what was expected of us.
“We were there to win. I remember lamping one City player so hard that he went flying over the barrier at the side of the pitch and ended up on Sir Matt’s knee!
“Sir Matt (below) loved it. He said to me, ‘You’ll do for us’.
“Every time I spoke to him about it afterwards he always reminded me of it.
“It’s a different game these days, of course, but United will have to find a way to get in City’s faces on Sunday because there is a massive gap between the two teams.” Whiteside was a warrior and a winner. He lifted the FA Cup twice with United by the age of 20 – scoring in the 4-0 replay win over Brighton and firing in a brilliant extra-time winner against Everton two years later.
He said: “The Cup was good to me – and scoring against City not long after Fergie arrived at Old Trafford is another great memory.
“It was a big game for him back then and he took us away to the Lake District to get away from Manchester.
“I was carrying an injury. I was probably only 80 per cent fit and Fergie asked me if I could do him a favour and play in the game.
“I was never going to say no – and I cracked home the winner at the Stretford End and the place went mad.
“I didn’t play in many derbies because City were a bit of a yo-yo club back then.
“But I think Ole has got his work cut out getting a result on Sunday because the gap between the two teams is massive.”
Whiteside, now 55, believes Solskjaer needs to bring some silverware back to Old Trafford by the time his contract ends in the summer of 2022 – or face the consequences.
He added: “Ole has brought back the stability the club has been looking for since Sir Alex retired, but he now has to become a winner.
“He has lost four semi-finals. There are just too many peaks and troughs with United at the moment.
“And on the other side of town, Pep Guardiola has got City winning every week, playing a style of football that Ole hasn’t been able to match.
“United have shown they can beat City in a one-off game, but in terms of consistency they are nowhere near.
“Ole has got another season after this one left on his contract and he needs a trophy.
“If he doesn’t deliver, then I think
United will be looking elsewhere.”