By Rory Smith
4:38PM BST 07 Aug 2011
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Manchester United possess something money cannot buy. Sir Alex Ferguson's side trudged into their Wembley dressing room at half-time looking a spent force, blown away by two fortuitous goals from football's new powerhouse.
The more things change, though, the more United stay the same. The old world's order is not ready to stand aside just yet.
And so, just as the chorus of Blue Moon was tuning up, just as the proclamations of Manchester City's ascension to greatness were being written, United did what United do. They rose to the occasion, found another gear. Two goals in five minutes, through Chris Smalling and, magnificently, Nani, brought them level, and left their fiercest, most visceral rivals shell-shocked. Whatever this season, the most open in years, brings, what role United will play is already clear.
Quite how they will play it, if that equalising goal is anything to go by, may be slightly different. It was the sort of strike Barcelona, the one team Ferguson and his men fear, the one side even they must bow down to, would be proud of.
And it was the sort of goal Ferguson's teams score at their very best. It was a goal of pace and power, of shimmering talent and impudent imagination.
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Source: Telegraph
Source: Telegraph