The blue half of Manchester continues to mourn while the red half’s celebrations just began thanks to the outcome of the first Manchester derby of the 2024/25 English football season.
Manchester City hosted Manchester United over the weekend in a match that nobody knew what to expect. Both teams have been poor in the last few weeks – City being the poorer side – and so, fans of both clubs just hoped for the best.
For neutrals, it was a way to gauge the managerial credentials of Ruben Amorim, who had previously beaten Pep Guardiola by four goals to one in his final UEFA Champions League game as the manager of Sporting CP a little over a month ago.
The Portuguese tactician has since found the transition to English football a little more difficult than he expected, but has shown signs that things can get better at United, a club who little has come to be expected of in the last half decade. Also, there has been no bigger test than Manchester City for the man and the fact that he has passed it has earned him some credit in the bank.
Speaking after the 2 – 1 away win, which came courtesy of an equaliser from Bruno Fernandes and a last-minute goal from Amad Diallo, the former Benfica manager said: “I think we deserved it.
“It was a very tough match but we believe until the end. We managed to score, we needed that win, it was important for us and for our fans. We were in the game for 90 minutes and that is very good. We talk about the Arsenal game, we played well in the first half, but they were not believing that we could win.
“Today was so much more different. I also believe. Then we have Fergie time and we put the things together and something magic happened. It was a good day for us.”
Amorim also thanked the fans and in the same breath, sounded a note of warning to his squad to not let this victory over the defending champions get to their heads.
“I think, for everyone, it’s just three points,” he began in his appreciation of the fans. “We have a lot to do but it was massive for our fans.
“The fans are from here, it’s different and they feel our club need to win these kind of matches. You can see they were singing until the 85th minute [anyway], maybe our conversation would be so much different without the two goals but their performance would be the same. They did a very good job. I understand the happiness of our fans but it is just three points. I think we deserved this win.
“Of course it’s really important but this game is finished. I remember, one week ago, the storm. We were 3-1 down to Nottingham Forest at home and that feeling, I’ll always keep that feeling for these days and not getting carried away.
“It’s three points we needed a lot, this team needs it a lot and we did a great game. But we were talking, before Arsenal, about top four and then lose to Nottingham Forest and everything was wrong. We managed to win another two games and the perception will change, of all the people and all the fans.
“We have to focus on the next game and doing our job.”
