- Kompany heads City in front
- Gundogan coolly makes it 2-0
- WATCH: City’s goals
- Pogba’s quickfire brace levels it
- Alexis Sanchez involved in 3 goals
- City fails to clinch title
It took 16 minutes for Manchester City’s day to go from celebrating the Premier League title to losing to a rival for the second time in a week.
Paul Pogba scored twice in 100 second-half seconds to put Manchester City’s title celebrations on pause, and Chris Smalling made amends for an early error to lead United to a 3-2 win over City on Saturday at the Etihad Stadium.
Vincent Kompany and Ilkay Gundogan scored to stake City to a halftime lead. City can next win the league with a win at Tottenham next week accompanied by a Man Utd loss versus West Brom.
United is now 13 points behind City and four points ahead of Liverpool and Tottenham.
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The home support at the Etihad was screaming for a penalty when a sliding Antonio Valencia saw a cross bound off his hand.
United earned a corner kick when Ederson played short to Vincent Kompany out of the box. The Belgian’s pass was picked off by a surging Red Devils press.
Paul Pogba had a few timely interventions in the center of the park, though one was unaided by his teammates and led to David Silva lashing over the goal.
David De Gea made a right leg stop when Bernardo Silva got a tame in-tight effort on goal.
The poetics of Kompany getting on the board in the 25th minute aren’t lost on the blue side of Manchester, and he thundered by Chris Smalling to smoke a header beyond De Gea despite a strong tug on the back of shirt.
An ethereal turn from Gundogan put the title on their lips, as he finished a 1-2 by slipping a goal inside the far post.
Raheem Sterling skied two good chances to make it 3-0 over the goal.
[ MORE: Latest Premier League standings ]
0 - Manchester United have failed to fire a shot in the first half of a game in all comps for the first time since October 2015 v... @ManCity. Spanking. #MCIMUN pic.twitter.com/rxA5o0oElJ
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) April 7, 2018
[ MORE: Full lineups, stats, box score ]
It wouldn’t have been a Manchester Derby with a drama-free second half, but Pogba made sure it was chock full of fun.
First, the United midfielder ran into the box to collect an Ander Herrera chest pass of Alexis Sanchez’s cross, and it was less than four minutes later that he deftly headed Sanchez’s cross directly to make it 2-2.
Jesse Lingard dragged a shot wide in the 60th minute as United looked to complete the comeback, but the Red Devils found their 3-2 lead through Smalling when the defender raced onto Sanchez’s free kick in the 70th minute.
Now down to a rival for the second time in a week, Guardiola introduced Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus. Then Sergio Aguero, who nearly won a penalty when Young skittered into his ankle inside the box after knocking the ball away from the Argentine.
The game descended into a foul and banter festival for about five minutes, as Martin Atkinson handed out yellow cards to Fernandinho, Sergio Aguero, and Paul Pogba.
De Gea didn’t have his A-plus game, but made an A-plus save on Aguero in the 89th minute. And he made an outstanding save when Sterling plunked a ball off the post and back toward the goal line on the ensuing corner kick.