The score was 2-1 in favour of the blue side of Manchester, With goals scored by Kevin De Bruyne and Kelechi Iheanacho for City.
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De Bruyne, who enjoyed a fine first season at the Etihad Stadium in 2015-16, feels the impact of Guardiola has given his team a lift.
The match, which marked the first encounter between Guardiola and Mourinho since 2013, also saw City end United’s ideal start to the PremierLeague this season.
“In truth, it would have made little difference whoever played – at times City were on a different planet to Manchester United”. It was a magnificent first 40 minutes of clinical passing and movement that completely shut United’s midfield.
This is the first game we have not played the best. He is mainly a No 9, but if you want to play him in different positions, we need to work him, we need to improve him.
City on Tuesday host Borussia Monchengladbach in their first fixture in Champions League Group C, which features also Barcelona, with whom Guardiola won the competition twice as boss.
Bravo’s contentious challenge on Rooney occurred 11 minutes into the second half and left the United captain writhing in pain inside the City area.
The Portuguese coach opted to remove the duo from his starting lineup and chose to go with Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in their place. “I had many [conversations] on the phone, lots of SMS”.
“It’s obvious that is a penalty and red card to Bravo”, he said. Even outside the box it’s a free-kick and a red card.
“But I did at half-time, we changed the direction of the game but we didn’t get the compensation I think we deserved in the second half”.
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“The kid Jesse – how many times has he played big matches? So probably in the next big game in the Premier League, I know who can accept the dimension of the game, which is very important”.
