Manchester City v Manchester United 2007/08

 

City: Schmeichel, Corluka, Richards, Dunne, Garrido, Johnson, Hamann, Petrov, Geovanni, Elano, Bojinov – subs Ball(73), Mpenza (6). Bianchi(63) Hart(unused), Onouha(unused)

United: Van Der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Giggs, Hargreaves, Carrick , Scholes, Nani, Tevez. – subs O’Shea(72), Campbell(73), Eagles(58), Kuszczak(unused), Silvestre(unused)

There were 2 changes to the side that beat Derby, Stephen Ireland fell ill before the game which handed a full debut to Geovanni. Also Sven decided that City would be under the cosh from United so would concentrate on a counter attacking tactic and therefore chose the speedy Bojinov over the more static Bianchi to lead the line.

Things didn;t quite go as planned,  as just 6 minutes in Bojinov landed awkwardly and had to be stretchered to the dressing room with what later was to be  diagnosed as a Cruciate ligamate injury which will see him sidelined for around 5 months.  Mpenza, with just 45 minutes reserve team football behind him was chosen to take Valeri’s place.. Just 1 minute before Bojinov departed Kasper made a fine double save from Nani. The same player tested Schmeichel, again in the 16th  minute when he sent in a low drive which the Keeper held well.

United had most of the possession without really creating too much as Richards made some fantastic interventions. Then on 31 minutes Geovanni hit a 25 yard shot with the outside of his right boot which took a deflection off Vidic before nestling in the back of United’s net.  1-0 to the blues and suddenly they started to play football with some ‘keep ball’  to the ole’s of the City faithful. So half-time came with City still to concede a goal this season.

United came out in the second half with all guns blazing, however they had one problem they had no centre forward. Kasper did not have to make one notable save in the second half thanks to one of the greatest defensive displays the Premiership has ever seen from Micah Richards who ‘apparently is still learning his trade at Centre Half. Vidic hit the bar with a header in the 47th minute. However the most amazing miss came on the stroke of half time as Tevez delivered a header from point blank range, Ferguson was punching the air with delight before realising that the ball had amazingly gone a foot wide of the City goal. And so as the final whistle blew the City fans basked in the knowledge that they were top of the league with United lying in an amazing lowly 16th place.

Sven Goran Eriksson remembers the game in his Autobiography

To the City fans, it was by far the season’s most important game. After my first press conference as City manager, a City supporter had come up to me and told me that l should just forget all that talk about finishing as high up the table as possible and getting into Europe. Beating United, and preferably twice, was the only thing that mattered. Everything else was secondary.
I wanted to beat United, too, especially Ferguson, but United dominated the match. Less than ten minutes from the start, Bojinov was seriously injured and had to be substituted. United created a slew of goal opportunities and should have won the match in the first half hour.Then, suddenly, Geovanni got the ball in the United half, advanced and hit a speculative shot from outside the penalty area. The ball was deflected slightly off a United defender and went in at the bottom of the post. The City fans went nuts. United continued to dominate, but we defended extremely well and the game ended 1-0 to us. After the match, Ferguson and I had a glass of red wine together as was the custom in England. He showed no bad feelings and congratulated me. I would be lying if I said I did not feel an enormous amount of satisfaction.We had won the first derby. We were top of the league after three matches with nine points and no goals conceded… A huge poster of me was put up in the city with the words ‘Old blue eyes is back’. City fans were offered free Thai food in Albert Square. Everything was almost too good to be true.