Haaland's double helps Man City to impressive derby win

14h ago | Source: BBC

Phil Foden scored his seventh goal for Manchester City against Manchester United

Football reporter at Etihad Stadium

Erling Haaland scored twice after Phil Foden opened the scoring as Manchester City returned to winning ways in the Premier League by beating floundering rivals Manchester United at Etihad Stadium.

Pep Guardiola's side came into the game with some concerns having suffered back-to-back defeats before the international break, but fears of another loss were allayed with goals from two players who enjoy playing against United.

The win was a poignant one on a day when City paid tribute to former boxing world champion Ricky Hatton, a well-known fan of the club whose death aged 46 was announced earlier on Sunday.

Speedy winger Jeremy Doku was pivotal for the first two goals, jinking through with quick feet to pull the ball back for local boy Foden to head home the opener on 18 minutes.

City doubled their advantage on 53 minutes when star striker Haaland latched on to Doku's pass before holding off Luke Shaw and dinking in a sumptuous finish.

Haaland, who pulled narrowly wide in the opening 10 seconds, should have scored a second immediately after netting when he took the ball round Altay Bayindir but somehow sent the ball against the post with an open goal gaping in front of him.

But the 25-year-old was not to be denied on 68 minutes when he ran clear from the halfway line and made no mistake with an unerring finish past the Turkish keeper.

Towering goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was thrown straight in for his City debut in this match after the deadline day move from Paris St-Germain and the Italy captain made a superb save at full stretch to deny Bryan Mbeumo's volley.

But United were not good enough in the final third of the pitch once again and drop to 14th with just one victory this season, while City's win moves them up to eighth.

There was talk of a crisis looming for Guardiola if City had lost this game, but Foden and Haaland ended any such talk.

Home supporters rejoiced by doing the 'Poznan' dance inside the stadium after watching their side claim the bragging rights courtesy of City's sixth win over United in their last nine league meetings.

The goalscorers seem to relish the prospect of coming up against United - both scored hat-tricks in a 6-3 victory here in October 2022 and they did the damage for the hosts once more.

Foden's header past the reach of Bayindir in the first half was his seventh goal in a Manchester derby, with the Englishman having only netted more frequently in his career against Brighton with eight.

Guardiola knows how important Foden is – Walcott

Haaland came into the fixture on the back of scoring an astonishing five goals for Norway in the 11-1 thrashing of Moldova during the week but was being made to do his defensive duties for large periods early on.

When he got to show off his attacking talent, the two goals he scored were coolly finished to take his tally to five in just four league games this season and 90 in 101 Premier League matches.

He should have had more but hit the woodwork from a couple of yards out, while a flicked effort was collected by Bayindir.

United were falling apart and City were threatening to rack up another sizeable scoreline against their opponents – Tijjani Reijnders clipping wide after running through having also had a side-footed effort that was kept out by Bayindir in the first half.

Guardiola will be smiling after a satisfactory afternoon, but the same cannot be said for counterpart Ruben Amorim, who will face serious scrutiny once again.

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In the match build-up, Amorim was asked who had the bigger issues to resolve - him or Guardiola.

Amorim was incredulous.

"To compare me with the situation of Guardiola? Is just a joke. I think we have bigger problems," he said.

Amorim's side, who went into the derby ahead of their rivals in the table for the first time since 2020, did well for long periods. Yet it was City who secured a deserved and very comfortable 3-0 win because, when it really mattered, they were a different class to their visitors.

They had a couple of opportunities to really threaten the home goal in the first half. Unfortunately, on the first occasion, Amad Diallo's pass to Bryan Mbeumo was overhit and too wide. On the second Benjamin Sesko played Mbeumo into trouble when a better execution would have sent the Cameroon forward clear.

On his first Premier League start, Sesko had one opportunity when he was sent running at the City goal, only for the Slovenian to take a heavy first touch and chip his shot into Gianluigi Donnarumma, who had closed the gap right down.

Presented with a similar situation in the second half, Haaland forced his way past Matthijs de Ligt and Luke Shaw and then calmly chipped over an advancing Altay Bayindir.

Amorim was right. He has much bigger problems than Guardiola.

That is the easy bit. The big question is how can he solve them?