Micheal Owen you beauty! One strike and he turned the whole world upside down! United clinched the most entertaining tie I have seen them playing all my life. Easily the best Manchester derby I have watched, ever!It was an absolute humdinger of a match. And the the build-up was no less sensational. It had to be - after their new owners splashed loads of money and helped City build a "strong" side, it was not going to be a low profile derby anymore. With them making a perfect start to the season so far add to that, the controversies such as the one about Tevez's switch and the one involving Adebayor last weekend, there were all the ingredients for a perfect derby build up.
And did it start by living up to the billing! Wayne Rooney scored quite a brilliant goal in just the 2nd minute of the game and it seemed as if United had decided to kill the tie in the first half. But City reacted well to their credit. After the first few minutes of the United "storm", City obtained more possession and seemed to get a good grip over the game. They gradually improved their possession and were actually were rewarded with a goal, a gift from James Foster, who through an inexplicable mistake helped Tevez create a beautiful chance for Barry to capitalize on. That soft goal seemed to send the United players' spirits spiralling down as they seemed to lose control of the game and City actually began to dominate the second half. They almost doubled their score before the half time break but Tevez only ended up hitting the post in what actually was a easy chance.
Second half was a repeat of the first half as far as United were concerned. Just a few minutes into it, United scored through a Fletcher header. But City responded in no time. Craig Bellamy came up with the goal of the match, a brilliant strike onto the corner of the net and it looked like we had a great match on our cards. Conceding the second goal didn't really make too much of difference to United's game. In fact, they only seemed flourish. United created a heap of chances as the second half progressed. They could have scored at least 3-4 goals in no time but for the City shot stopper Shay Given who seemed totally invincible for a short period. In particular, it was Berbatov who was at the receiving end of that show by Given and was a tad unlucky not to score.Yet it was increasingly looking like United would score and they didn't disappoint - Ryan Giggs, who was having a great match, beat a couple of defenders with some vintage trickery and found Fletcher to perfection and Fletcher didn't disappoint. United had about 10 minutes left on the clock and looked set to defend the game out for an easy victory from then on. But a silly mistake from Ferdinand saw Bellamy clear with the ball. Bellamy was too quick for Ferdinand to redeem and he came up with an great finish to beat an off-colour Foster with a clinical finish. That goal which came as a shocker for United came at the completion of 90 minutes and it just looked as if City were destined to leave with a point.
United didnt really get too close to scoring in the allotted 4 minute added time and everybody was expecting the referee to blow his whistle. But the injury time dragged on into the 6th minute and that's when we got to see some magic, Ryan Giggs found a loitering Micheal Owen in the City penalty box to perfection. Owen controlled the ball brilliantly, foxed Given and put the ball into the far net! And that was it, it was game over, in the most dramatic fashion.
Mark Hughes was visibly upset at seeing United score during a prolonged injury time.
There has been a lot of controversy around why the injury time was dragged beyond the stipulated 4 minute mark. But it was later explained that the Craig Bellamy goal was celebrated for almost a minute by his city teammates because of which a minute's time was added on by the referee. And along with that there was half a minute added to account for the substitution made by United. So, it should appear that the officials strictly followed the rule book on this occasion!
This is by far the best game I have seen United play and win. They looked a touch wary in the first half after the ill-conceded goal but were all over their neighbours in the second. But I would say that the mistakes made by the defense made the game as interesting as it was. Ryan Giggs was my man of the match and he looked a good 10 years younger in this game. Fletcher scored a brace which was heartening to see for he deserved both the goals for the hard work he put up in the mid field.
City have actually announced, through this game, that they are definitely a top-4 material. With their improved strength, we can certainly look forward more interesting derbys. The down-side would be that United stand the risk of losing points to their neighbours!
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