Man City 1-0 Man Utd

By Chris Bevan



Geovanni celebrates after putting Man City ahead
Manchester City made it three Premier League wins out of three this season with a shock win over rivals United.

United dominated from the off and Nani forced Kasper Schmeichel into two good saves early on as City hung on.

The home side had created nothing until they took the lead when Geovanni's shot deflected home off Nemanja Vidic.

Vidic hit the bar as United continued to pour forward but City, led by the impressive Micah Richards, held out and United are still winless this campaign.

Sir Alex Ferguson's side have taken only two points from their first three games and the champions are now seven points behind City at the summit of the table.

It has been the perfect start to the season for the Blues and their new boss Sven-Goran Eriksson who is yet to see his hastily-assembled side concede a goal.

That statistic seemed unlikely early on as United started like a train and, with City struggling to keep the ball let alone do anything constructive with it, it seemed just a matter of time before they took the lead.

Inside the first five minutes Nani forced an instinctive block out of Schmeichel and the young keeper did well to hold a firm shot from the same player soon after.

United had set up camp inside City's half by now and another neat move set Patrice Evra running clear only for him to slice his shot horribly wide.

City, who had lost Valeri Bojinov to injury early on too, were simply hanging on and if not for the brilliant Richards they would surely have collapsed.

England coach Steve McClaren is short of centre-backs for Wednesday's friendly with Germany and he will surely be glad he can call on the 19-year-old City defender to play there if needed.

Richards, nominally a right-back, began the season in the centre under Eriksson and has emerged as a real star of the new Eriksson regime.

He made one brilliant tackle to deny Tevez as the Argentine closed in on goal and then made a timely clearance after Schmeichel had dropped a Giggs cross.

But at the other end City were still creating absolutely nothing and it was a total shock when they took the lead on 32 minutes.

With United's defence backing off, Elano fed Geovanni who let fly with a 25-yard shot that span off Vidic's back and swerved into the corner of the net.

If anything, City controlled the remainder of the half but United were soon threatening again after the break.

Vidic beat Richard Dunne to Giggs' corner but saw his header cannon off the crossbar before another dangerous Giggs cross was somehow cleared from danger by Richards.

Yet more United possession followed and Tevez went close to levelling when he flicked another Giggs ball agonisingly wide.

But the goal would just not come for Ferguson's men and their frustrating afternoon was summed up in injury time.

Another Giggs corner found it's way to Tevez at the far post but the Argentine could not react quickly enough to find the target with his header and City survived again.


source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/6941879.stm