Manchester United's dramatic late comeback inflicts more misery on Pep Guardiola and Manchester City
DIALLO DELIGHT: Manchester United's Amad Diallo kisses the badge as he celebrates scoring their side's winner. Pic: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.
AMAD Diallo made a dramatic late impact as Manchester United scored twice in the final two minutes of a Manchester derby which to that point had delivered nothing in the way of drama.
Pep Guardiola and City looked to be coasting to a routine and uninspiring victory, thanks to Josko Gvardiol’s first half goal, but with time running out Matheus Nunes needlessly gave the ball away to Diallo who headed towards the City goal.
He appeared to have been pushed wide, and out of danger’s by keeper Ederson, but Nunes sprinted back and body checked the young United winger to the ground, presenting Bruno Fernandes with a penalty which the United skipper gleefully converted.
Then, in the final minute of normal time, further calamity for City’s defence came with Lisandro Martinez’s long ball splitting defenders and catching Ederson uncertain whether or not to come for the ball.
Diallo took a skilful touch to take the ball around the flapping keeper and volleyed it over the line in extraordinary fashion.
It was a dramatic conclusion to a derby that summed up the malaise that both clubs are currently suffering but one that saw City take the lead on 36 minutes in a suitably scrappy fashion.
A short corner between Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan was worked well enough but the former’s cross needed a fortunate deflection off Amad Diallo, as he attempted to tackle, to find the right trajectory to reach Gvardiol.
The ball looped over Rasmus Hojlund and Diogo Dalot for Gvardiol to rise impressively and guide a superb headed finish past Andre Onana.
It was the Croatian defender’s fourth league goal of the season, making him City’s second leading scorer behind Erling Haaland, a statistic which tells its own story about his team’s problems.
But if City’s are bad, United’s are so much worse, even if they started marginally the brighter of the two.
With Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho dropped, for either poor form or poor attitude or a combination of the two, there was a lack of finishing power and threat in attack.
At least with this still being a Manchester derby, there was some desire from supporters, and occasionally the players, to lift the tempo and atmosphere of what was an increasingly disappointing occasion.
Just after the goal, for example, Kyle Walker fouled Rasmus Hojlund then embarrassingly flung himself to the ground when the pair did no more than touch foreheads as the United man objected.
Players from both sides jostled for a few seconds before the two combatants were booked but even that “flashpoint” was a pale imitation of years gone by between these two fallen giants.
Phil Foden remained lively and might have punished United further before the break, finding space on the edge of the area and seeing his shot deflected behind off Lisandro Martinez.
But the fact that neither Haaland nor Hojlund had touched the ball in the opposition area in the first half told the story of a game low on quality and chances.
United had also been unsettled by the early loss of Mason Mount, who went down injured after only recently returning to the line-up, the latest in a long list of problems for the former England midfielder.
That did not stop Amorim openly showing his frustration as his side struggled to make an impact on the game in the second half although, fortunately for the United manager, City were not much better.
It took until the 62nd minute for United to force Ederson into his first save of the half, indeed the match, when Diallo met Bruno Fernandes’s well-aimed cross into the box.
The youngster connected with a superbly-weighted header that looked destined for the bottom corner until the City keeper made an alert dive to turn it away.
There was also a strong United claim for a penalty after Hojlund went down, under contact from Ruben Dias, but referee Anthony Taylor and VAR viewed there was no case to answer.
Still, the greatest chance yet of an equaliser fell to Fernandes after 74 minutes and a defence-splitting through ball from Hojlund.
With only Ederson to beat, United’s skipper could only left the ball over the advancing keeper and wide of the left-hand post. It was a miss for which he would be allowed to make amends.
Ederson 5; Walker 5, Dias 5, Gvardiol 7, Nunes 4; Gundogan 7 (Savinho 88); Silva 6, De Bruyne 6 (Kovacic 67, 5), Foden 6, Doku 5 (Grealish 76, 5); Haaland 5.
McAtee, Muamba, O’Reilly, Ortega, Simpson-Pusey.
Onana 6; de Ligt 6 (Yoro 78, 5), Maguire 7, Martinez 7; Mazrouai 6 (Antony 78, 5), Ugarte 6, Fernandes 7, Dalot 5; Diallo 9, Hojlund 6 (Zirkzee 78, 5), Mount 5 (Mainoo 13, 5).
Bayindir, Casemiro, Eriksen, Malacia, Lindelof.
A Taylor 7.
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