Rashford scores again as United beats City in Manchester derby

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Old Trafford rejoiced as the ultimate whistle blew on the 189th Manchester derby.

A win in opposition to Manchester City is all the time one thing to have fun. This, nonetheless, felt like extra for the Manchester United followers.

A come-from-behind 2-1 victory on Saturday was the newest proof of the group’s enchancment underneath supervisor Erik ten Hag and the potential of an unlikely Premier League title problem.

“The perception is again and we’re in an excellent path,” Ten Hag stated.

Substitute Jack Grealish had put City forward within the second half, however targets from Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford secured the factors for United and went a way towards avenging the humiliating 6-3 loss to its neighbor in October.

The win additionally places United only one level behind defending champion City and as much as third within the standings — six factors behind chief Arsenal.

For now Ten Hag is dismissing the concept of United being in competition for a primary title since 2013. His group’s kind, nonetheless, tells its personal story.

“Fans may dream, but we are not. We have to keep our feet on the ground and face that our game has a lot to improve,” the Dutchman stated.

Ten Hag was sad with the style wherein United allowed City to take management after having the higher possibilities within the first half.

Fernandes’ 78th minute equalizer, in the meantime, was contentious after an preliminary offside choice was overruled.

Rashford was past the final man within the buildup to the aim and despite the fact that he didn’t contact the ball, Pep Guardiola and City’s gamers believed the ahead had interfered within the play.

“To be honest, for me the first goal is a joke that it is going to be allowed like this,” stated City defender Manuel Akanji.

Guardiola recommended the sport being performed at Old Trafford was an element within the aim being allowed.

“The decision is they didn’t believe Rashford was intervening in this stadium. This is Old Trafford, we have to play much better, like Anfield, we have to do better,” he stated.

The debate over the aim apart, this was one other encouraging efficiency from United to return from a aim down and finish a three-game shedding streak in opposition to City.

United has already overwhelmed Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham this season and has now received 9 video games in a row.

It has solely misplaced certainly one of 18 video games since that derby loss to City in October.

“We improved, that’s obvious. Still a long way to go, a long path to go, a lot of aspects in our game we have to improve, but we’re progressing, that’s quite obvious,” Ten Hag stated. “We often talk about teams developing, tactics progressing. One of the main jobs for a manager, for a coaching staff is to work on the mentality of the team and this mentality has a lot of elements. One of them is resilience, the determination of this team is progressing a lot in those facts, dealing with setbacks, dealing with suffering in painful moments and keep going after setbacks like a goal against us.”

This was the sternest take a look at of United’s resurgence underneath Ten Hag, even with City coming off a shock 2-0 loss to Southampton within the English League Cup on Wednesday.

United had the higher possibilities within the first half, with Rashford having one shot cleared off the road by Akanji after rounding Ederson after which seeing one other effort smothered by the City goalkeeper.

City took management after the break and Grealish opened the scoring within the sixtieth minute, simply three minutes after approaching, when he headed in Kevin de Bruyne’s cross.

United evened the rating in opposition to the run of play when Fernandes struck.

Rashford then hit the winner from shut vary simply 4 minutes later when he transformed substitute Alejandro Garnacho’s cross.

It was the ahead’s sixteenth aim of the season and his eighth in his final seven video games.

“After conceding a goal we cannot concede the next one, this is the most important detail we have to improve in the future,” Guardiola stated.