United fight back to deny City title celebrations
Premier League
Manchester City 2-3 Manchester United
Manchester United produced an incredible second-half comeback to beat rivals Manchester City 3-2 and leave them waiting for confirmation of the Premier League title after a thrilling game at the Etihad Stadium.
Pep Guardiola’s side seemed to be cruising to the crown as they went in at the break with a 2-0 lead, but United conjured an extraordinary response led by two-goal Paul Pogba before Chris Smalling hit the winner.
City produced the first threat with five minutes gone when Leroy Sane found David Silva, whose low cross seemed to hit the grounded Ashley Young on the hand only for penalty appeals to be waved away.
The home side were controlling the opening stages but United offered some threat when Pogba was fouled on the left only for Alexis Sanchez to waste the free kick.
Back came City and, after 21 minutes, David Silva got onto the end of a loose ball after good work from Raheem Sterling but sent his effort high and wide.
That was a warning for an increasingly stretched United, whose keeper David De Gea soon had to make a good save to thwart Bernardo Silva.
But after 25 minutes City took what seemed to be their first step towards confirming the title when captain Vincent Kompany rose unmarked to thump home a header from Sane’s corner.
Five minutes later, it appeared all but in the bag as Pep Guardiola’s men struck again in style, Sterling finding Ilkay Gundogan, who turned away from Ander Herera and finished low into the corner.
Sterling twice fired over from good positions as City looked to put the outcome beyond doubt before half-time, Herrara going into the referee’s book as United looked increasingly ragged.
Sane crossed low as Jose Mourinho’s side again struggled to cope with City’s passing, only for Sterling to scuff his shot into the hands of De Gea, while Gundogan headed at the keeper before the visitors’ Romelu Lukaku was booked for a foul.
Lukaku made a strong run into the City area in the opening moments of the second half but his attempted cross was cut out, the corner coming off Kompany and running across the area with nobody able to get a touch.
United were on the front foot as they tried to find a way back and Pogba tried his luck from just outside the box but Ederson saved.
Back came City and Sterling engineered a shooting chance for Gundogan, who lifted his effort over.
