Sunday 08/01/2012
FA Cup Third Round
Manchester United's Wayne Rooney scores twice to knock out cross city rivals at the first hurdle, as Paul Scholes makes a surprising return from retirement.
The return of Paul Scholes was the main talking point before the game, as Manchester United's legendary midfielder earned a place on the bench for the second Manchester derby of the season. Other changes saw Danny Welbeck return to the starting lineup, ahead of Dimitar Berbatov, partnering Wayne Rooney up front. Chris Smalling was fit enough to start as United's makeshift defence of recent weeks was beginning to look more familiar, he lined up along Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra and Phil Jones.
City started the better, pushing United deep into their own half as they tried to take advantage of their home support. However that crowd was soon silenced as Antonio Valencia's cross was met perfectly in the air by Wayne Rooney who headed an unstoppable header past Costel Pantilimon. The goal was United's first attack of note and they had made it count.
Just two minutes later the Blues took another blow as their captain Vincent Kompany lunged in recklessly on Luis Nani. The Manchester United winger just managed to get himself out of the way but Kompany had gone in two footed, making Chris Foy's decision easy, sending him off after twelve minutes.
One goal to the good and a man up, United were fimrly in the driving seat as they looked to settle the tie early. The away side piled on the pressure as their 5,000 fans sang the loudest. In the 30th minute United doubled their advantage as Danny Welbeck fired home an excellent volley, again leaving the outstreched Pantilimon no chance. The young Englishman was the only Mancunian to feature in the derby and he reeled away in exstacy following his brilliant strike.
The league leaders were in pieces, and in the 40th minute Rooney hit his second and United's third. When Aleksander Kolarov felled Danny Welbeck in the box Chris Foy pointed to the spot, and despite the City keeper stopping Rooney's initial strike he couldn't get to rebound as United took an unprecidented 3 - 0 lead at the Etihad stadium going into half time.
United had one foot in the fourth round and at the half time break City removed two of their more attacking players in David Silva and Adam Johnson for the more defensive options of Stefan Savic and Pablo Zabaleta. Moments after the restart City had a lifeline, Patrice Evra was deemed to bring down Micah Richards on the edge of the area and Kolarov's freekick found the bottom corner of the net to reduce the deficiet to 3-1.
Soon after the goal Valencia found himself in the City penalty area and as he outsmarted Kolarov the Serbian defender brought him down, stunningly Foy didn't award a second spot
kick for United, despite the clear foul. On the hour mark we saw the return of Paul Scholes, on as a substitute for Nani, however he made an instant impact for the wrong reasons as a stray pass allowed Sergio Aguero a shot on goal, his attempt foruntaley was parried back in his direction to give City their second. With just a single goal margin the home side were looking to complete an unlikely comeback.
But as the half wore on United shored things up with Paul Scholes making amends as me made 71 passes in his 30 minutes on the field with a 97% completion rate. This defused the City comeback and they had one final chance in the dying minutes as Kolarov struck another freekick from the same position as his first, but this time Anders Lindegaard repelled the effort as United completed a famous victory against their rivals.
United will now travel to Anfield to face Liverpool in the 4th round of the FA cup as the draw brought up another tough opponent away from home.
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