Uzair Rizvi, BeyondHeadlines
Luis Nani scored in the injury time to give Manchester United a 3-2 win over their derby rivals Manchester City in season’s opening match FA Community Shield.
United trailing 2-0 in the half time came back strongly in the second half to win this shield for the record 19th time in the history.
It was a highly anticipated fixture at the New Wembley, which recorded a near to full capacity of 77,000 fans which thronged in the capital city. Man City won the FA Cup last season; they defeated Man Utd in the semi-finals to reach the finale and went on to clinch their first silverware in 35 years.
Man City having made into this season’s UEFA Champions League looked pretty solid while Man Utd have just had a perfect Pre-Season US tour where they won all their games including a high-voltage match against FC Barcelona.
Despite dominating the game United failed to stop City’s defender Lescott, who got the header beating De Gea making it 1-0 for City in 37th minute. Soon Edin Dzeko’s far off attempt successfully passed the United’s new goalkeeper at stroke of the half time. He was late in judging the ball.
United fought back resiliently after the break and Smalling pulled one back in 51st minute from Young’s free kick. In 57th minute United leveled the scores via Nani finishing off a superb intricate passing movement with a deft touch.
With Match heading for a penalty-shoot out the Portuguese Winger Nani robbed Kompany on halfway, ran unchallenged into the area and rounded the City Goalkeeper Joe Hart to score in the stoppage time.
The game was littered with yellow cards as City collected 5 out of 7 yellow cards.
United made five changes bringing in Cleverly, Evans and Jones in the second half.Berbatov was also used in the last minutes.
City’s latest signing Argentina’s Ace Striker Sergio Aguero was an unused substitute.
De Gea clarified his earlier mistake by making some good saves in the second half and he denied Adam Johnson a goal when he punched away his goal-bounded effort.
