Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, right, celebrates with teammate Phil Foden, after scoring his side’s third goal throughout the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Manchester United on the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, Sunday, March 3, 2024. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)
MANCHESTER, England — Phil Foden led Manchester City’s fightback after an astonishing miss by Erling Haaland for a 3-1 win over Manchester United in a one-sided derby that exposed the gulf between the 2 Premier League rivals on Sunday.
City trailed 1-0 at halftime after Marcus Rashford’s rasping long-range strike within the eighth minute and a glaring miss from the prolific Haaland from barely two meters out.
Foden succeeded where Haaland earlier failed, smashing in a rising drive for the equalizer within the 56th after which sweeping in a low shot within the eightieth minute off Julian Alvarez’s inside pass.
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“I at all times had the sensation he would rating goals. Right away, he’s winning games,” City manager Pep Guardiola said of Foden, the 23-year-old England forward whose double took him to 17 goals this season in all competitions — a profession high.
“He’s the player of the season … no-one has been so decisive for us as him this season.”
There was still time for Haaland to atone for his miss by making the most of a defensive error to stroke home the third goal in stoppage time with City’s twenty seventh shot of the match.
Rounding off the victory together with his SIXTH derby day goal! 💫@ErlingHaaland 👏 pic.twitter.com/2sIxWKed1I
— Manchester City (@ManCity) March 3, 2024
Haaland collapsed to the bottom in mock relief following his goal — a league-high 18th of the campaign — after celebrating with Foden. The pair scored a hat trick each in City’s 6-3 win over United last season and so they hurt their rivals once more.
Second-place City moved back a degree behind Liverpool with 11 games to go in a title race that appears like going to the wire. If Arsenal beats Sheffield United on Monday as expected, the gap between the three predominant title contenders shall be two points once more.
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United, meanwhile, has lost ground within the fight for Champions League qualification. With fourth-place Aston Villa and fifth-place Tottenham winning on Saturday, United is now six points back from Spurs and 11 behind Villa.
The lopsided nature of the match showed that Jim Ratcliffe, whose Ineos operation has taken charge of United’s footballing operation as a part of the billionaire’s arrival as a co-owner, has his work cut out in returning the club to being a force within the English and European game.
He talked last week about knocking City and Liverpool “off their perch” in three years. That may be optimistic on this evidence.
United was outclassed at Etihad Stadium, with the sport mostly being played within the visitors’ half in the way of an FA Cup match between a top-flight team and a lower-league opponent. City had 74% possession overall and United only had one shot heading in the right direction — Rashford’s goal.
Still, before Foden scored his good first, there was a probability United could one way or the other hold out. And even that goal was contentious, with United manager Erik ten Hag offended that a foul wasn’t awarded for a foul on Rashford by Kyle Walker prior to City breaking forward and grabbing the equalizer.
“(It was) perhaps soft but there was contact,” Ten Hag said.
Soon after Ten Hag threw his water bottle on the bottom, Foden was unleashing a shot that flew past Andre Onana.
One other draw — coming two weeks after City was held at home 1-1 by Chelsea — would have been a serious blow to the team’s possibilities of an unprecedented fourth straight league title but Foden and, belatedly, Haaland ensured that wouldn’t be the case.
And so, City shall be heading to Anfield for a seismic match next Sunday right on Liverpool’s tail and with a probability of inflicting an enormous blow within the title race. City is now unbeaten in 19 matches in all competitions dating back to a 1-0 loss at Villa on Dec. 6.
It’s a record United can only dream of in its current state as Ratcliffe gets to work with a mighty rebuilding job.
One positive for United was the performance of Onana, who repelled City with a series of outstanding saves within the second half and will do little about Foden’s breakthrough.
One other was the standard of Rashford’s goal, a thunderbolt from 30 meters after Onana’s long clearance got Bruno Fernandes behind City’s defense.
From then on, nonetheless, it was one-way traffic and United didn’t stem the blue tide.
