“We painted the city red … there will be a couple of glasses of red wine for me tonight” was as decisive an opening remark as Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær could make in his post-match interview following an enthralling 90 minutes at the Etihad.
Man City 1-2 Man United: A city divided as Red Devils emerge victorious!
A superb performance from United ensured a memorable Premier League derby day for the Norwegian coach as the Red Devils secured a 2-1 win over Manchester City on Saturday. Marcus Rashford converted a 23rd-minute penalty, given by VAR before Anthony Martial doubled the advantage six minutes later.
Nicolas Otamendi pulled one back for the hosts late on, but United defended resolutely to claim a well-deserved three points. Once in the bag and with the bragging rights to go with it, Solskjær was full of praise for his coaching staff, in light of his Red Devils’ display in the blue half of Manchester on the day.
“The preparation they do is fantastic and they give the boys the minutest details to go towards,” Solskjær said. “The team executed [the game plan] to perfection apart from the ‘keeper making a couple of decent saves. You can talk about our defending today but you have to say that the attacking play, especially in the first half, was absolutely fantastic. Every time we had the ball I felt we could score here.”
His captain, and the man who led the Red Devils to yet another derby win, Harry Maguire, said he felt immensely proud. “To lead the boys out at the Etihad and to get all three points was important,” said Maguire. “The disappointing thing at half time is that it was only 2-0.
“But we knew that they were going to come strong and were going to throw everything at us,” Maguire added. United will next face Everton at home in a Premier League assignment on Sunday, December 15 where they will hope to continue from where they left off and to hopefully consolidate on a possible top-four finish come the end of the season.