Man City 0 Man United 1
Manchester City 0 Manchester United 1, The City of Manchester Stadium, English Premier League, May 5, 2007. As was expected before the start of The Manchester Derby, the encounter between Manchester City and Manchester United at Eastlands turned out to be a rather tough and physical affair. The Manchester Reds eventually emerged victorious thanks to a well-taken penalty-kick from Cristiano Ronaldo four minutes past the half-hour mark.
Stuart Pearce´s Manchester City, who had failed to score at home in the Premier League since New Year’s Day when they defeated Everton 2-1, could have gone into an early lead after only fifteen minutes of play, but Emile Mpenza´s somewhat weak effort was excellently saved by Netherlands international goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar. Then, in the 34th minute of proceedings, Manchester United were correctly awarded a penalty by match official Rob Styles when rocket-heeled forward Cristiano Ronaldo was brought down to earth by Manchester City left back Michael Ball inside the eighteen-yard area. The Portuguese stepped up to the spot himself and converted by sending Eastlands goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson the wrong way. It was Manchester City´s turn to receive a penalty, however, when Michael Ball was grounded by England international defender Wes Brown inside the box after 79 minutes of constant action, but Darius Vassell’s subsequent spot-kick was brilliantly blocked by Van der Sar. Manchester City Team: Andreas Isaksson, Sylvain Distin, Nedum Onuoha, Richard Dunne, Michael Ball, DaMarcus Beasley, Dietmar Hamann, Stephen Ireland, Michael Johnson, Emile Mpenza, Darius Vassell, Substitutes: Sun Jihai, Trevor Sinclair, Paul Dickov, Nicky Weaver, Georgios Samaras. Manchester United Team: Edwin van der Sar, Wesley Brown, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Gabriel Heinze, Michael Carrick, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo, Alan Smith, Wayne Rooney. Substitutes: Tomasz Kuszczak, Darren Fletcher, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Kieran Richardson, John O´Shea.
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