Manchester United – Man City: Who needs attackers when you have John Stones and Fernandinho?
Two unlikely scorers led Manchester City to beat rival Manchester United at Old Trafford in a 2-0 win in the League Cup semifinal on Wednesday.
City go on to face Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium in April, Pep Guardiola’s men looking for the fourth league cup in a row.
[ VIDEO: Premier League highlights ]
United left the semi-finals for the fourth time in their last five tournaments, with the exception of the elimination in the Champions League group stage last month.
Fernandinho scored his first goal since October 20, 2018 against Burnley, his only goal since the start of the season, while Stones hasn’t scored since Napoli’s defeat by the Champions League on November 1, 2017.
The last time these two teams faced each other was 0-0 and they will face each other again in the Premier League on March 16, at Etihad Stadium.
Here is your recap, highlights from the video and three things we learned from Manchester United – Man City.
Three things we learned in the Manchester classic
1. Poor. What is… Man United in the semifinal and Harry Maguire with crosses from the left? We saw this against Sevilla in the Europa League and against RB Leipzig in the decisive game of the Champions League group stage: Harry Maguire, as strong as he has been in recent months, is having a hard time being decisive in whipping the serve. First it was Suso’s goal at UEL, then Angelino at UCL, now John Stones jumping between Maguire and Luke Shaw to score Phil Foden’s free-kick for the channel. It’s a dangerous free kick and you can tell that Maguire was concerned with putting the long-range ball into his own goal, but he have to find a way to clear the danger.
2. Steffen’s initial defense must resonate: No one is asking Ederson to hand over his spot to his American reserve, but Man City goalkeeper Zack Steffen made an excellent stop in the first leg of Wednesday’s game. It was one of the few moments of concern that City’s best defense suffered – Ruben Dias and Stones were great again – but don’t forget that United didn’t even have a chance to defend at all costs against City because of one of the two defenses of Steffen in the day.
3. Pep and Mou again: The League Cup final will be the 26th time that Guardiola will face the old enemy Jose Mourinho (the 25th time will be on February 13 at Etihad). Pep is 11W-6D-7L against Mou, but the Portuguese magician led Spurs to 2-0 consecutive defeats against Man City and won three of four against Mourinho, which date back to the time when they were rivals in the Manchester derby. Whether Spurs – Man City, Bayern Munich – Chelsea or Barcelona – Real Madrid, stories have always included managers. Be careful.
Man in field: stones
Ruben Dias and Fernandinho were instrumental in the victory, but Stones’ opening goal eased their strong display. On a 97-touch day, Stones added two tackles, a blocked kick, three releases and a goal interception.
John Stones puts Man City one step closer to Wembley! pic.twitter.com/wGZqo7WDbg
– ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 6, 2021