Manchester City demonstrated the infinite difference with which it surpasses Manchester United today, which it overwhelmed and overwhelmed with tremendous authority, with the insatiable and irrepressible voracity of Erling Haaland and Phil Foden -both triple scorers, apart from assistant twice the Norwegian-, with the precision of Kevin de Bruyne and with the football of an imposing team, on the lookout for Arsenal’s top, after a lowered display in the last moments with a double by Anthony Martial (6-3).
The ‘machine’ led by Pep Guardiola, still one point behind the leader, still the only unbeatable team this season in the English competition, took a while – just over half an hour – to knock out his opponent with a sequence of imposing blows, the result of the superiority that he imposed from the beginning over his opponent, whom he cornered, shook and subdued with an unappealable and expressive forcefulness.
United had no answer in the entire first half, knocked down after four consecutive wins. He felt surpassed in each set, in each sector, in each possession, in each withdrawal, in each transition, in each attack, in each one of the circumstances that comprise a match, in each one of the qualities in which he was surpassed by the Manchester City, which after three minutes had already had a triple chance and that after eight had already received 1-0, a precious combination of the group led by Guardiola.
It all started with Foden on the right wing. And it all ended in Foden, too, inside the area, in the shot, when Bernardo Silva’s pass from the left finished. On the way there were three first touches to go from one side to the other, in addition to the deep opening to the left flank of Cancelo. The entire United defense didn’t know anything -or couldn’t-, who seemed to be mere spectators of a marker play, unattainable for each of them.
Later, Gundogan hit a magnificent free kick on the post, Foden aimed at 2-0, as did Kevin de Bruyne with a shot to the crossbar, when Varane was hurting on the ground from a pitch to the left ankle that injured him for the rest of the meeting. They were all the ‘openers’ of the gigantic show that Haaland later offered, a scorer for history at only 22 years old, but with 103 goals in 100 games between all the duels of his career or with 15 goals in eight games this season with the City. An atrocity.
His last nine shots on goal with City at the Etihad Stadium have been goals, three of them this Sunday, when it was a cyclone that destroyed United’s defensive structure, between the 34th and 64th minute, in half an hour of play in the that transformed each shot. The umpteenth exhibition of an amazing forward, of which no limit is yet intuited.
Two of the goals were still in the first half: his first, in minute 34, 2-0, was a header from a corner kick that Malacia already took from within and that should lead Erik Ten Hag to reflect, because the marker was Christian Eriksen, which the striker got rid of with great ease; the second, 3-0, in the 37th minute, when he lunged for the shot with the left in a wonderful cross from De Bruyne (he has participated in 31 goals in his last 31 league games, 16 as a finisher and 15 as a passer) .
The third of his account, already in the 64th minute, was 5-1 for City, with a shot with the left foot inside the area as if it were the simplest thing in the world, when it is so complex for so many strikers throughout from all over the planet. Not only was Haaland a scorer this Sunday, because he also offered two assists to the other star of a win for history: Phil Foden, the author of 1-0, but also 4-0 and 6-1.
The young attacker, also 22 years old, like Haaland, made it 4-0 in the 43rd minute and enlarged his game with 6-1 in the 73rd minute, when he clinched another cross from his Norwegian teammate with his left foot. against Manchester United, who did not appear for the opposite goal until the 56th minute, when Antony scored a great goal (4-1), and who covered up the embarrassing defeat with 6-2, in 84, and 6-3 , in the 90th penalty, from Martial.
Cristiano Ronaldo did not even play, Casemiro was a resource from the bench in the 59th minute, when United were already down 4-1, and Aymeric Laporte reappeared at City after being absent from the beginning of the season, a month and a half of the start of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
