Erling Haaland celebrates scoring Manchester City’s second goal
Erling Haaland struck twice for Manchester City as they cruised to a 3-0 win over Manchester United in English football’s Premier League, giving Pep Guardiola’s side bragging rights in the latest edition of the derby.
Phil Foden also scored for City in his first start of the season on Sunday, heading in Jeremy Doku’s cross in the 18th minute. Doku squeezed brilliantly through United’s defence and had his first cross blocked, but dug out a second that Foden leapt to guide in.
Haaland scored his first of the afternoon in the 53rd minute, when Doku muscled past Lenny Yoro before sliding a pass to the big Norwegian, who chipped the ball over goalkeeper Altay Bayindir.
The 25-year-old, who charged at United’s defence like a bulldozer all day, completed his double in the 68th minute when the visitors lost the ball. Haaland, lining up at the centre circle, easily outpaced Harry Maguire to Bernardo Silva’s ball forward for another one-on-one with Bayindir.
The match lacked the intrigue of derbies past, with both teams going into the game mid-table after sputtering starts.
City climbed to eighth with their second win from four, while United are 14th with just one victory.
Haaland almost had a hat-trick, thanks to United’s shambles at the back. He had Bayindir beaten but missed a sitter, hitting the post. Guardiola was already celebrating but then held his head in disbelief.
The victory capped quite a week for Haaland, who scored five goals on Tuesday when Norway pummeled Moldova 11-1 to maintain their perfect record in men’s World Cup qualifying.
He also scored his 50th goal in his 50th home Premier League game for City. In the competition’s history, only Alan Shearer required fewer home appearances, 47, to reach 50 goals.
He nearly set up Tijjani Reijnders for a fourth City goal late in the game, but Reijnders chipped the ball just wide.
City had six shots on target to United’s two, but Guardiola’s new goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma quickly proved his worth, diving to push away an early shot from Benjamin Sesko and then making a brilliant diving save from a second-half effort by Bryan Mbeumo.
Foden told Sky Sports that he was pleased to score after receiving some criticism this season.
“There’s been a lot of talk, everything I see at the moment is quite negative, but that is the world we live in when you play at the highest level,” he said.
“It’s about reading the comments and trying to react as best as I can and come back to my level.”
He also praised Haaland’s performance.
“A complete performance, especially the way he held up the ball. He did everything today: defending, attacking, running in behind, doing the dirty work,” he said.
Haaland, meanwhile, told Sky Sports that City “needed” that win after a difficult start to the season.
“You could feel it as well from the fans,” Haaland said. “We needed [the win], you could feel a bit extra today, and I am so relieved and so happy that we managed to do this all together.”
United captain Bruno Fernandes said his side should have done much better but noted positives from the game.
“The result is very bad and bad on us, but I think there are two ways of looking at this game as the goals could have been avoided. On the ball, we were positive, brave, and playing the ball forward,” he said.
“City were smart to get the goals the way they did and have a very good team and very good players.”
Elsewhere in the Premier League on Sunday, Mohamed Salah’s stoppage-time penalty ensured Liverpool maintained their winning start to the season with a 1-0 victory at promoted side Burnley.
With British record signing Alexander Isak forced to wait for his Liverpool debut, having been left out of the squad for the trip to Lancashire, the champions struggled to break down a dogged home side in the first half.
After a regroup at the break, the visitors upped the ante in the second half, with Dominik Szoboszlai finally forcing a fine save from Martin Dubravka in the Burnley goal.
Burnley were holding on for a well-earned point with ease before the ball agonisingly struck substitute Hannibal Mejbri’s arm in the penalty area, and Salah slotted the spot kick into the net in the 95th minute to break home hearts.
