Kevin De Bruyne came up with a clinical performance to draw first blood in the 1st derby encounter against United at Old Trafford. De Bruyne scored one and set up another to put city in a commanding position in the first half. United though fought back to reduce the deficit but couldn’t manage to equalize.
City looked more threatening in the early stages, with Kevin De Bruyne and Nolito both creating problems in the channels between Manchester United’s full-backs and centre-backs. Kevin De Bruyne proved to be a menace on the channel between Manchester United right-back and centre-back drawing a foul from Eric Bailly, which earned City a free-kick just outside the penalty area. Manchester city continued to dominate, but Manchester United embarked on another counter-attack that was snuffed out when Mkhitaryan ran down a blind alley. The first half was pretty much entertaining as both the teams displayed professionalism in their games. Just when Manchester United were looking good to score one De Bruyne came up with a spectacular goal to put city in front.The Stadium was filled with silence.
Things got worse for United as first half became a nightmare.city came with a second goal just 10 minutes before the half time mark. Kelechi Iheanacho doubled Manchester city’s lead, scoring into an empty net from six yards after Kevin De Bruyn had hit the upright. But United managed to reduce the deficit just before the half time. Zlatan slotted one home to put United back into the game.Claudio Bravo failed to deal with a cross to the far post, the ball breaks to Zlatan and the Swede slots home. Manchester united kicked-off, having made two half-time changes. Ander Herrera and Marcus Rashford came on for Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Marcus Rashford made an instant impression, having taken up position on the left of the front three. city nearly avoided a penalty when Bravo attempted to play the ball out from the back, but was forced into his wild lunge after a poor touch. Second half turned out to be a thrilling encounter as both the teams created lot of chances.
In the end it was Manchester city who held their nerves to secure a thrilling victory over their arch rivals United in the first derby of this season.
