Manchester City’s Phil Foden, right, celebrates after scoring his side’s second goal during an English Premier League football match against Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, Sunday, March 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson).
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Phil Foden led Manchester City’s fightback after an astonishing miss by Erling Haaland for a 3-1 win over Manchester United in a one-sided derby that exposed the gulf between the two Premier League rivals on Sunday.
City trailed 1-0 at halftime after Marcus Rashford’s rasping long-range strike in the eighth minute and a glaring miss from the prolific Haaland from barely two metres out.
Foden succeeded where Haaland earlier failed, smashing in a rising drive for the equalizer in the 56th and then sweeping in a low shot in the 80th minute off Julian Alvarez’s inside pass.
There was still time for Haaland to atone for his mistake by taking advantage of a defensive error by Sofyan Amrabat to stroke home the third goal in stoppage time with City’s 27th shot of the match.
Second-place City moved back a point behind Liverpool with 11 games to go in a title race that looks like going to the wire.
United, meanwhile, have lost ground in the fight for Champions League qualification. With fourth-place Aston Villa and fifth-place Tottenham winning on Saturday, United are now six points back from Spurs and 11 behind Villa.
The lopsided nature of the match showed that Jim Ratcliffe, whose Ineos operation has taken charge of United’s footballing operation as part of the billionaire’s arrival as a co-owner, has his work cut out in returning the club to being a force in the English and European game.
He talked last week about knocking City and Liverpool “off their perch” in three years. That might be optimistic on this evidence.
