Bravo’s had a nightmare in goal for City, and was lucky to stay on the park when he lost control of the ball at his feet and lead in with studs showing in a 50/50 challenge with Wayne Rooney in the 50th minute, but Clattenburg saw nothing to it.
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Kevin De Bruyne was the catalyst for the visitors, coolly opening the scoring after nipping past Daley Blind before firing a shot that hit the post and rebounded kindly for Kelechi Iheanacho to deservedly extend City’s lead.
“I’m clearly disappointed with the the first-half”, Mourinho stressed.
“What I told them at halftime was that for some of you, it looked like you are trying to do what I told you not to do”, Mourinho said.
“Everyone is disappointed today, which is normal after losing a derby, but this is the fourth game of the season and every team will lose games”, the Belgium midfielder said. “We have to focus on the next game and we have to win”.
As Pogba sauntered back, while City constructed both of their goals in a 2-1 victory, it was typical of how Pep Guardiola’s men had made him chase shadows all game. “Some of the guys, they felt it”. Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne in first 15 minutes left United keeper David de Gea guessing as he slots the ball in net and scored first for the City. Then his team set about delivering a footballing lesson to United in the first half.
It was the first encounter between Guardiola and Mourinho, former El Clasico sparring partners, since 2013 and gave the former Barcelona coach an eighth win in 17 encounters with the ex-Real Madrid manager.
There was worse to come for the United skipper as City made it 2-0, Iheanacho tapping in from six yards after De Bruyne’s low curler struck the base of the left-hand post.
Ibrahimovic’s reply settled United – and it sprang from an error from Bravo, who dropped Rooney’s free kick while being impeded by his own defender John Stones.
Mourinho wore a face of thunder on the touchline, but Bravo gifted his side a lifeline three minutes before half-time.The Chilean allowed Rooney’s deep free-kick to slip from his grasp and Ibrahimovic produced an athletic volley to spear the loose ball into the net.
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Mourinho mixed things up for the second half, throwing on Marcus Rashford, Ander Herrera and later Anthony Martial and taking a more direct approach in search of an equalizer, but City still looked more unsafe on the counter-attack and De Bruyne almost restored the two-goal cushion when he ran onto Leroy Sane’s pass and shot against the inside of the post. “This was not our best game but we created four or five chances to draw the game”. “These guys have heart”.
